Who is an entrepreneur?

Recently I wrote this post. And since yesterday, I have been reading Capt. Gopinath’s “Simply fly”.

Its a good book, though it could have been written better I felt.

While reading, Ct.G quotes Peter Drucker’s definition of an entrepreneur.

A true entrepreneur is one who creates wealth where it did not exist earlier by creating a new market and a new customer. They create something new, something different; they change and transmute values;

I liked the definition, but dont adhere to it 100%. This is fringing on Blue Ocean kinda strategy.. creating new markets. But not every innovator can manage to be successful and I believe sometimes being early is bad. Early birds get cooked many a time! Many a time, the first player is not the one who makes a business out of it, but the subsequent player who is a better executor of the same idea.

I am a firm believer that the team and its execution capability is far more important than the idea itself. It is nice and great to innovate, but it is far more important to execute it better.

Now, keeping the above opinion aside, I re-read my own post mentioned above. What would I do if I had a million $?

I had written things like “Start an online book store like flipkart.com”. Now, now…when I read it now.. I feel stupid!

Why would I want to be another flipkart.com? Or the next amazon.com?

Thinking within a box!!! How often we think of doing things the same way.. same style..

Capt. Gopi thought out of the box. He started a helicopter company when none existed. He built a low cost airline when the idea was considered unviable.

We need to think out of the box… for heavens sake, atleast while creating a wishlist.

I need to revisit my wishlist again!!

Why do you work?

I read this post today by Simple Dollar’s Trent.

This is an age old thingy! Why should you work? What would you do if you had a million dollars? Or if you had unlimited resources?

I know its old, its cliched.. yet, let me try to answer that one for myself.

• Start an online library chain (I love books!). Start an online book store like flipkart.com
• Travel all around the world and indulge in photography
• Run a mountain side farm with a stream running through it
• Develop a cutting-edge data integration / data quality tool and release it under open source
• Find and fund at least 10 diversified startups in areas within my circle-of-competence
• Manage my investment portfolio myself based on Ben Graham’s / Warren Buffett’s principles
• Develop a personal finance tool that is easy to use, flexible, reconciles with investment and bank accounts, calculates tax on the fly, has online and offline data entry…. and has flexibility to create meaningful / useful reports and dashboards. (I use GNUcash today. I love it. But its reporting features are not that great.. and its a lot of work to keep data updated)
• Write a book on Nilgiris (www.Neilgherries.com is a domain that I own)
• ……………… the list goes on

Things I want to do in life

Most of you might already know 43 things, a site for sharing your wish-list. Things that you want to do in life. It’s fun!

I created my list there.. and enjoyed it fully. It also made me think and re-think! I suddenly realized that I wanted to do so much in life!! Huh.. whoever designed a 24 hour day… just not enough.. damn!!

My list is not as eccentric as the one Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman create in “The bucket list“… (if you like ‘meaningful’ movies, watch it) but interesting nevertheless.

I urge you to create yours today and have it public! If you got stuck, use these tips.

Also, take the quiz they have. It’s more fun than true. By the way, the result of my quiz was not surprising. It said

You are a Self-Knowing Creative Money Manager

IMHO, this result is true only in retrospect and maybe it fails from a futuristic view.

And there is a small book they sell. It doesn’t have a great review on Amazon, at least yet. But I will be nice (I like their site, after all) to promote it here. (I dont get any commissions, mister!)

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I’m a

Self-Knowing Creative Money Manager

Fantastic interpretation of world statistics

Please have a look at this video.

Be patient for the first 3-4 mins. The real show begins after that!

I was really thrilled seeing the way the speaker had handled data… intertwining it with design!!!

You will love statistics if it is presented this way.

And the other thing is the clarity the data throws on issues like poverty, GDP growth, internet user growth, life expectancy curve, etc.

Who said data is boring?

This video is a must watch!!!

Delegation: A must-do for any leader

You might love work. And you might love it so much that you want to do things yourself.

But there is a limit to what you can do. And to what you can do within a time frame.

Hence, delegation is a key skill to get things done.

Here is a quick 8-step-cookie for successful delegation. Read the rest of this entry »

Wisdom of the week!

If you know Tamil, here is a gem from Thirukural.

Thaeran thelivum thelindankann aiyuravum
Theera idumbai tharum

The translation is as follows.
Read the rest of this entry »