Does passion pay starting up vs taking a job
[Music]
a very good morning to all of you
i am very very excited to be here today
to talk about a topic that’s personally
very very close to me does passion pay
should you take up a job or start your
own company
this is a question most of us have
grappled with at some point
in our lifetimes but what really is
passion
passion is defined as a strong
enthusiasm or a desire towards something
specifically when it comes to our
careers it’s opposed to changing your
dreams
doing what you love following your heart
but does passion really pay
growing up we’ve all had a certain
notion of what life is supposed to be
we’re expected to study hard in school
so that we get into a good college
you’re expected to work hard in college
that you land a good job you then get
married you get set inside
it’s almost like our entire journey is
charted out for us before we even have a
chance to decide
whether or not that’s the life we want
for ourselves
but what if you’re not meant for that
kind of life what if we are meant for a
different path
no one really prepares you for a plan b
it almost as if there isn’t supposed to
be one
well here’s something that would cheer
you up even adults don’t have it all
figured out
growing up i was personally unsure
myself on what i wanted to do i took up
science in the 11th and the 12th because
i was a good kid
and a good student throughout my school
years i then switched to law
as my undergrad degree i did that for
five years
i then ended up doing journalism for
some time i switched to
advertising i learned tattooing for six
months went back to law for a year
and then successfully started my own
company eight years ago
there’s a lot of things that i have done
over the years as well
and throughout each and every one of
those things i was trying to figure out
what it is that i truly love doing
let’s start off with the first half of
the question right to job
or not to job i think that is a question
that a lot of you guys
listening in today would probably be
thinking of a lot of you have probably
sat for your first rounds of interviews
apply to all your dream companies hoping
to land that perfect job
some of you may have in fact even
applied to a couple of other safe
companies
just to make sure that you have
something at the end of the day after
you graduate
now before you actually decide whether
or not to take up that first job offer
and yes i know it is tempting to to make
sure that you do take up that first job
offer
um i think one of the mistakes that a
lot of people make
is that we end up choosing a job or we
end up taking an offer more from a
former feeling
right what if i don’t get another job
what if i reject this company today and
i want to apply to them tomorrow but i’m
not able to get it
so let me just take what i have in my
hand right now
i would urge each and every one of you
listening in today to actually take some
more time
before you actually finalize your job
there’s a lot of things that are very
very important for us to actually
consider
yes your pay or your compensation is
very important
you are putting in your time you’re
putting your effort you’re putting your
resources and your bandwidth
and you want to make sure that you are
adequately compensated for it
yes it is important to work for a good
company that has brand value to your cd
because that will help you in your
career
but there’s a couple of other things
that we often don’t pay enough attention
to
it’s very important for us to actually
research on a company before we decide
to go ahead
and apply or go ahead and decide to take
up their job
research on your team these are people
you’re going to be spending a lot of
time with over the next couple of months
or years depending on how long you
actually stick with a job
research on your boss i cannot tell you
how important it is
for you to know exactly who you’re going
to be working with who you’re going to
report to
a great boss is someone who will
actually teach you a lot if someone will
actually help your career progress
unfortunately if you’re stuck with the
boss that you don’t get in love with or
things don’t work out it could be the
most
it could be the most it could be the
least fun part of your life
most importantly research on the work
culture different organizations have
very very different working styles
life in a startup is very very different
from life in an organized
larger organization when you are working
at a startup it’s extremely fast-paced
there are new things there are new
challenges
every single day there’s a lot of
decisions that will come directly on to
you
and it’s an ever-changing and
viral organization you have more systems
more processes more structures
in place and it’s a very very different
sort of work lifestyle
i would also recommend reaching out to
people on linkedin
people who are working at their
organization people who have been with
their organization previously and
understand from them
how their company works what the
expectations are
this is something that i tell every
single person i interview right there
are too many mondays that you’re going
to have
in your life don’t do something where
you wake up every
single monday hating what you’re doing
and hoping for something else
make sure that whatever you do you’re
happy doing you’re sure of what you are
doing
and it will make sure that you actually
enjoy every single aspect
of your job coming back to my journey
as i mentioned that i have done a bunch
of things i studied law i studied
science i’ve also done a whole host of
internships and jobs now although i
didn’t realize it
at that time all the various things that
i was doing have actually helped
me get to where i am today and they’ve
actually had a much much bigger impact
on my life today than i probably even
gave it credit for
earlier the one thing that remained
constant whether i did law or science or
journalism or advertising
or any other thing was that i gave my
200
to every single thing i made sure that
no matter what i was learning something
new every single day
and even if i did not continue with this
specific field or this internship or
this job for a very very long time
i took out something valuable from this
so that i felt like
my time was actually utilized well i’ll
give you a couple of examples from my
journey
journalism definitely helped me improve
my writing skills
when you’re working with tv and radio as
i was for bbc
every single word you write every single
word you speak
is a paramount importance everything
that you do
say eventually is worth its weight in
gold these writing skills have helped me
tremendously even today
whether is writing an email is reaching
out to someone on linkedin
or even preparing a pitch at my
advertising job
i actually started off because i was i
loved copywriting i found it to be a lot
of fun
and i was actually pushed into client
servicing and negotiation
now to be very honest when that happened
to me it wasn’t something that i was too
keen on doing it’s something i
personally didn’t enjoy
but it’s probably the single most
important skill that i use today on a
day-to-day basis
no matter what job you’re in no matter
what company you’re working for
client negotiations and client servicing
are two skills that you’re going to use
directly or indirectly almost on a
day-to-day basis
the third and probably my most favorite
example is tattooing
now i’m guessing you guys are wondering
what i probably learned
in those six months tattooing that i use
at my
startup today right let me tell you this
when you are tattooing you have zero
room for error
zero room the amount of attention to
detail that goes
into tattooing is probably incomparable
or second to none with any other thing
that i have done
i used to actually spend six days a week
at the tattoo parlor that i did work
with
learning and improving out of those six
days we had to spend
one entire day every week that’s about
10 or 11 hours
continuously at the stretch every week
just cleaning the equipment
honestly it’s probably one of the most
boring
the mind numbing things that you can do
at that time i actually found it very
very
boring it’s something that i did not
enjoy doing at all
but when you are forced to do the same
thing again and again
for 10 or 11 hours at a stretch and you
have to make sure that every piece of
equipment that you are working on
is 100 sanitized and clean and ready to
use
you actually understand the importance
of hard work of attention to detail
and being completely thorough with
everything you do no matter how small no
matter how big
this is probably one of the most
important lessons that i have learned
in my journey which i use every single
day at work
and it’s something that i try to
inculcate in every single team member
so i know that’s a lot of yeah there’s a
lot of life advice a lot of do’s and
don’ts for each of you guys so let’s
discuss something a little more fun
something a little more light-hearted
let’s talk about unicorns
unicorns are the internet’s favorite
animal probably the most discussed
animal on social media and probably the
most celebrated world in the startup
space
here’s a fun fact about unicorns in
india we have more than 50
000 startups as on today and by the end
of 2021 we expect to have about 50
unicorns
that’s less than one unicorn for every
thousand startups
in the country here’s one more fun fact
about startups
over 90 percent of startups failed
90 i was actually a good kid and a good
student throughout school and college
but 90
is a lot more than i actually got in my
board exam
what we often see when it comes to
startups is the glamorous site the
billion dollar evaluations the founder
exits the ipos
the success stories but there’s a whole
lot more that actually goes
into starting and selling off your own
organization
there’s a lot of hard work there’s a lot
of struggles there’s a lot of setbacks a
lot of failures
and unfortunately this is not something
we give enough importance to and it’s
not something that we discuss
often enough i think it’s important for
us to all realize that starting your own
organization is not a 100 meter sprint
starting your own organization is more
like a marathon
it takes dedication it takes persistence
it takes stubbornness
day in and day out non-stop 24 hours
it’s not something that’s easy it’s
probably not something that everyone’s
cup of tea
i’m not here to discourage you i’m just
here to tell you what the actual
truth is however there are two things
that can actually help you succeed
when you are planning to start your own
organization and will give you a greater
chance of success
firstly your partners your co-founders
these are people you have to choose very
very wisely
think of it like you’re getting into a
marriage with these people you’re going
to be spending
almost your entire day almost your
entire time
or entire waking time with your
co-founders these are people you need to
trust
these are people who have to have your
back you’re going to have a lot of bad
days
at your organization you’re going to
have times when you’re feeling low
you’re going to have times when you’re
doubting yourself when you are doubting
your own opinions and your own
perspective
it’s very very important to have people
on board who you can trust blindly
people who you know are there for you
people who will basically help pull you
up
during those staff days and people who
can collectively take your vision and
your idea and as she grows into
something much
much bigger the second most important
thing
that will determine or that will
determine to a large extent
where
every startup every organization every
company
is only as good as its team i know this
sounds cliche but let me give you an
example
when we started our organization about
seven or eight years ago
the first five or six people that
actually joined our organization as the
first five or six team members
are with us even today each of these
people put their faith in an
organization that was just starting off
they weren’t really sure on whether they
would actually make it this far
to be honest even we weren’t sure
whether we would make it this far
when we hired those people even we took
a bit of a gamble because none of them
had any previous experience
this was the first job that all of them
were doing some of them did not have
very strong academic background either
i am very proud to say today that each
of these five or six people
is still with us each of them is
managing their own team of 20 20 40 50
people
and from all the successes that we’ve
had as an organization from all the
milestones that we’ve achieved
this is probably one of the stats and
one of the highlights that gives me more
satisfaction personally
as a founder if i have to sum up my
entire startup journey and i know it’s
been a long journey
but if i can somehow sum it up into
three learnings or three pieces of
advice
it would probably be this the first most
important thing
is that every starter founder’s job
every starter founder’s role
can be defined in three simple words get
it done as a starter founder you’re
going to face a lot of issues on a daily
basis
it’s very easy to blame other people
it’s very easy to point fingers
it’s very easy to make excuses for why
something didn’t happen
it doesn’t matter as a startup founder
you are expected to lead the way
as a startup founder you are expected to
get the job done
we firstly packed orders we want your
customer calls we’ve delivered products
we’ve set up our warehouse on our own
because we wanted to save some money on
gabe of course
we pretty much done everything from
start to finish when it came to starting
our own organization
because we did not have the luxury of
giving it to someone else
and as a startup you will realize very
very early on that in your early days
you are your sales person you are your
marketing person you are your customer
care person you are your hr
you are every single thing and more
because you do not have the privilege or
the luxury of having a larger team to
actually take care of these things
secondly everything is figure out
let me repeat that everything is figure
out
except for rocket science nothing is
rocket science
yes you will face new challenges and new
problems every single day
some of these you will be prepared for
most of these you will not be prepared
for
more often than not you will have
failures more often than not
things will not go as per plan what will
actually help determine whether or not
you’re able to pull through is the
mindset with which you approach work
every single day if you are in that
frame of mind that no matter what
challenges i face today no matter what
issues i face today
i am going to work hard i’m going to
make sure that i find the situation and
i take my company forward
as long as you have that mindset there’s
a much greater chance of you succeeding
than not the third piece of advice that
i’d like to give when it comes to
starting your own organization
and this is probably something that’s
firstly closest to me is that 99
right is 100 wrong
99 right is 100 wrong
good enough is not good enough as a
startup founder
every single shortcut that you take not
only directly impacts you
but also impacts your co-founders your
team and the organization
as a whole as a co-founder you are
responsible for
each and every one of the people in your
organization and
indirectly even their families it is
very very important for every sata
founder to understand the responsibility
that comes
with starting their own organization the
responsibility that comes with being
responsible for the entire team and make
sure that you do not settle for less
you have to inculcate that culture in
yourself and in your entire team from
day one that unless you are 200
satisfied with the quality of work with
the output of work it is not okay
you do it again you do it again you do
it again no matter what
but you make sure that every piece of
work that you put out there is 100
exactly how you want it to be especially
as
starter founders it is very very
important to make sure that that work
culture and that work ethics absence
from the beginning
itself now we’ve spoken about jobs we’ve
spoken
please i’m sorry so we’ve spoken about
getting a job
we’ve spoken about starting your own
organization let’s go back to our
question
what makes sense right does passions
really pay
a handful of people probably graduate
from college
and start their own organization almost
immediately and they succeed
these people are the exception not the
rule
what i would personally recommend to
every single person listening
in today is the job first take your time
learn someone else’s experience this
will use the time
and the bandwidth to actually work on
your idea to talk to people
to understand the viability and the
feasibility what this will also help you
with is to understand how companies
actually function
how do people build teams how do people
manage teams how do people lead teams
it’s also very very important to
understand that while your startup will
be based on whatever product or service
or idea it is that you are selling
there’s a lot of other things that you
will also need to learn on the go as
a co-founder spending time at someone
else’s expense developing your idea
gives you that flexibility
it gives you that question is also very
very important for people to spend that
time earning some money
and having a backup in testing this new
account
so my personal advice to all of you will
be do not rush into starting your own
organization
yes you may have a great idea yes you
would be very very confident that this
idea could potentially solve problems
for a lot of people
but your idea is only one percent of
your challenge
execution is 99 so make sure that when
you are
when you are planning to start your own
organization you are a lot more prepared
to end this this talk it’s been eight
years since
i started my own organization and i’ve
just gotten my first ted talk
the moral of the story is work hard get
some experience
make sure that you’re putting your 200
into every single thing
that you do most importantly make sure
that you are giving
yourself every chance of success when
you actually decide to start your own
company
if you can actually manage to do these
things i am very very confident that
each of you
at some point in the future will be
giving your first debt off
to a new set of college students who are
embarking on their career
and who are taking their first step into
the big bad conflict
thank you