Entrepreneurship is like college life

Well though I haven’t been an entrepreneur as yet but my dear friend Nirav Manek is currently one and the idea of comparing the college life and entrepreneurial experience was given by another of my dear friends Sanjog.... And as I promised her I would write a blog about the topic, so here is the same........

Yes its true, staring your own set up is very much a journey like a college, the only difference is the college life ends while in most cases there is no end to entrepreneurial journey.

When we start our college life, there are a mixed set of feelings amongst us varying from fear, anxiety, curiosity to excitement about the new stage of life that we are supposed to enter, same is the case with our own venture, there are a mixed set of feelings and we hope of sailing through the tough times and be successful at the end of the day.

In college the first month goes the toughest and also at the same time we learn many new things during this period, while the learning continues throughout the college life, the tough period seems to settle down as we get more acquainted with the schedule of the education, knowhow of the things and off course the friends we make during the journey. Same is with starting a business, the staring part is the toughest as everything is new and unexplored and a lot of challenges and hurdles are faced by us and slowly and steadily as we move forward we are in the groove of the things and then we start taking control of the situations and ultimately sail through the tough weather of tensions and problems.

During college we get accustomed to freedom as we don’t have any responsibility on our shoulders and studies are just a part of the college life with most of the time being spent with friends and other group activities. Entrepreneurs are also free in the terms that they are responsible only for themselves and not anyone else, they can work as per their wish and do what they want with hardly anyone to question their logic, they again do not follow any strict time frames or schedules and enjoy their work life like their college life.

While the major difference as I told you earlier is that college life ends at a certain point of time, but the entrepreneurial journey is a never ending process and we keep on learning some new things on each day of our experience that is valuable for future.

One of the irony amongst the two concepts is most of us have to enter college lives as a way of living to move forward and don’t want it to end but have no control over it as it has to end, while entrepreneurs select their path by their own choices and passion and they also don’t want to end their journey.

A Brief about Anna's movement

The Lokpal bill was not passed since the last 42 years by the upper house ie the Rajya Sabha in parliament, however it was introduced ten times but not cleared.

A group India against corruption was formed in 2010 that comprised of social workers like Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi etc. they drafted a new Jan Lokpal bill with the help of Justice Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhusahn and advocate Prashnat Bhushan and had demanded from the government that this bill should be passed.

While Anna Hazare had declared his fast for the implementation of the bill government didn’t paid heed to the same. The group also met Prime Minister but the PM only said that till 13 May nothing could be done as assembly elections would be going on in 5 states. The group was disappointed and decided to go ahead with their protest.

Just before the fast the group also met National advisory council under the chairmanship of Sonia Gandhi, but they offered that the matters above rs 10 lakh should only be considered under this act, Hazare refused for the same.

As he sat on fast on April 5, he received a mammoth support throughout the country especially metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi , Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata etc. Many people had sat on indefinite fast along with Anna to show their solidarity and support.

On the second day itself Sharad Pawar who was in the Group of Ministers formed by the government to check corruption had to quit the seat due to public pressure.

The electronic media picked up the issue from the first day and Anna became a celebrity adding more weightage to his points. He was the topic for the country to talk for almost four days of his fasting and he finally broke his fats on April 8.

Print media also supported ably and as a result of the media and public pressure government had to bow down and a committed of 10 members – five from government and five from civil society was formed to discuss the bill and it was promised that the bill would be passed till 30 June.

Many Bollywood celebrities like Anupam Kher, Amir Khan, Shabana azmi, Urmila Matondkar joined the protest and visited Anna Hazare.

Anna has also threatened that if the bill is not passed till 15 Aug he would go on a hunger strike again.

Committee members form civil society

Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan

Committee members from government side

Pranad Mukharjee – Chair person, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed, P.Chidambaram, Verrapa Moily