Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Welcome back to Success with Srini. Happy Saturday morning to you. Today’s podcast episode is for you, if you are an entrepreneur, this is also for you if you ever thought of becoming an entrepreneur. And this is, of course for you, if you’re in between. And what is this in-between, I’m going to define that in a second. And before jumping into the core, I want to set the tone for today’s podcast by sharing three different articles that came from three different sources. The first one was published on March 9, 2011. This was on Business Insider, it says unemployment is forcing people to become involuntary entrepreneurs. People do business from necessity, then having a great idea or entrepreneurial spirit. That’s the title of this article from Business Insider. Then, on May 6 20.1, exactly 10 years later, now we are in a different situation in 2021. They’re already a year into COVID. And the world has changed. This is an article from The Wall Street Journal. It says millions are unemployed. Why can’t companies find workers? So this article was going deep into the benefits that people are getting not going to work. It was also talking about unemployment benefits. This article was more about people not going to work because of the COVID situation, the fear of getting COVID, and all that. So there are fears and then obviously the unemployment benefits and all that. So this article is pretty comprehensive. And we already know this problem, because this problem has just recently played out, it was all over the media. So you probably know this.
Now, between 2011 and 2021, there was an article on ink.com. And this was published on February 3, 2016. And it says why the cure for unemployment is not more jobs. If unemployment is a symptom of a weak economy, creating jobs, is just a bandaid. The real cure is a resurgence of entrepreneurship. So entrepreneurship is what fixes the problem. So let’s take this February 3 2016 inc.com article and look and take that into our lives into your life into my life, our lives. Let’s first define where we stand. A typical listener of this podcast stance, you know, I can’t generalize this, but I’m going to make an attempt. So has a job has a defined title has a defined income has a volatile role is not clear. But in a somewhat compromised management structure, has liabilities has bills to pay, so has to keep the job and work hard, has a family has two kids. He or she doesn’t matter. Okay? Now, this individual decides, I don’t like this, I mean it, I’d have taken it for 510 15 years now I want to change my situation, this individual decides to change. And the first change this individual wants to make is fire. My manager. I don’t like my company, I don’t like my manager. So it’s better that I’ve worked for myself. So this individual decides to go independent. And again, there are so many other issues like Visa, depending upon which country this individual is from. Most of my listeners of this podcast are in the United States. So depending upon the visa and the eligibility for employment, that there are some things there.
Okay, so this individual results, all those issues in a 10-year span, and the timeline and decides enough is enough, I’m going to go on my own. Okay. So the first thing this individual does is start a consulting company. I have all this experience I’m a pro, so I should be able to do This myself and decides on I’ll go and get my own client, I’ll get my own customer. So let me go try this out on my own, okay, at this point, this individual is, in a way he or she believes that they started a business effectively, they didn’t start a business that just becomes self employed. It’s a self-employment situation. Nothing changes, again, fixed income. Now have multiple managers. Yeah, a little bit of flexibility in terms of taxes, maybe running a business operating through a personal entity, things like that, but nothing changes as much. Now that situation. Soon this individual stock starts to see that it’s not a good situation to be in. Okay. And now, after a few years, decides, why don’t I replicate myself. So I’m going to go hire a bunch of people into the company who can do exactly what I do. That way I can make more money. And then goes hires people. Now more complexity gets added. Now the management of those people, of course, more revenues, not necessarily proportional profits for the effort going in. This is how consulting companies operate the majority of my clients and people I talk to, have this challenge, they have an inflated organization, which makes them feel as if they are business owners. But they really haven’t found the freedom yet. So now, they think they own a business. But they really don’t. They’re working in the business, they can’t take time off, they can’t go anywhere. They have issues.
Now they’re dealing with issues that are outside of their work structure, that dealing with issues externally, to the company and people’s personal issues and all kinds of stuff. Now, at this point, sometimes people tell me, I’m an entrepreneur, I have a consulting company. Just because you have a company doesn’t make you entrepreneurial. You could be doing it because you saw an opportunity that you wanted to encash. And you probably did that with maybe one or two different situations. And now you started to believe in that. And now you are building an operation around those kinds of opportunities, and you’re looking for opportunities here and there. But not necessarily have freed yourself. This is what I say. People who have gotten out of the job situations but not necessarily become entrepreneurial entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship involves and new ideas, new ways of thinking. It could be in terms of products, it could be in terms of concepts and philosophies, some parts, but then taking an idea, mobilizing different resources, and giving it shape and form. Maybe it could become profitable, maybe not. But in a business situation, you are looking into, how do we operate this? How do I make it run, I have to open the office at 9 am, how to close it at 9 pm, something like that. So there are a lot of businesses that have business owners, not necessarily all business owners or entrepreneurs. Now, where am I going with this? Your job is to become an entrepreneur. Your job is not to become a business owner. Now business ownership happens because you became an entrepreneur. It’s one of the elements of entrepreneurship, not necessarily the qualification for entrepreneurship, you become an entrepreneur first. But as you grow as an entrepreneur, you’ll end up owning a business or two or three or five. See that? I’ll put one name there, Elon Musk, okay. Go study him, study his growth, study his current approach to life and business. And overall, with the trajectory that he has right now, you will understand exactly what I’m saying.
Most business owners are so caught up in their businesses that they’re not open to new ideas. That looking for ideas, but they don’t have time. They can’t think now a business as a business owner. You are only a business owner. If you’re not working in the business. That means you have people who are like you, they work you make a profit from them but If you are sitting there and taking a paycheck and you’re still working, you’re still managing them. It’s not business. So how do you go from having some professional experience? to becoming an entrepreneur? How do you kind of go? How do you cover this journey? Here is the answer. There isn’t. There is no shortcut to this. See people who go from regular jobs, they say, I want to become an entrepreneur, let me bring an idea. And I’m going to get some investor to invest in all, you know, get raised some money. I hear that all the time. Most people don’t get lucky with that. Most people don’t get the money. Most people don’t. And you probably need 3040 50 different ideas and probably 3015 102,000 different presentations and tons of people along the way, to whom you present, who will say no to you, who will reject you, and lots of a segment along the way. It’s not easy. See, it doesn’t work that way. So the staying power in the game is what defines you as an entrepreneur, how long can you be at it? And what are the things that you’re going to sacrifice to become that it’s not about profitable, it’s not about making money, it’s about going hungry, it’s going becoming sleepless and just, you know, losing? I’ve seen different people talk about this. Somebody asked me the question that as to become an entrepreneur, I lost my 401 K, I lost W2, my income. And for years and years, and yes. And don’t know if I’m an entrepreneur or not, I run a business. Right? I define my time and find my schedule. Not sure yet. See, I’m still in the process. I’m not there. But I’ve seen people who got there. And I get inspired by looking at them. So how do you grow? How do you accelerate this growth from becoming from being a professional who is on a paycheck to becoming an entrepreneur who has multiple ideas and has the time and flexibility liberty to pursue anything and everything at will? How do you get there? Well, here’s the deal. Okay, do as many jobs as you can do it, take up as many jobs as you can. Okay, start adding as many businesses as you can. Okay, not accelerate the process, but first, become self-employed. Let’s go there first, okay. And fix some issues. So change the situation, fix some issues. And then from there, change the situation again, okay, start a business and hire other people who are identical to you to make you better than you. Let them run the show, you stay back.
Now you focus on entrepreneurship, it takes some time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Some people are lucky. They know that one born into it in a different way altogether follows. But then entrepreneurship is the highest form of self-development. I said this multiple times on this podcast, there is nothing in this universe that will test you like entrepreneurship, you lose relationships, you lose money, you lose sleep, you lose your health, you lose many things along the way, there’s a price that you have to pay for the price. There is a price you pay for the price. And multiple times I mentioned this year on the podcast too, if you are a regular listener, people read books, self-improvement books, they do nothing, they come to seminars, they do nothing, the gold coating, they do nothing, nothing nothing. And the field they are doing something amazing things solving the mind, not on the ground. No one business, I’m willing to start a business, I’m gonna fail over the next 12 months or 24 months I go hungry. I’m willing to do that rather than reading 40,000 books over the next 40 years. You can’t do that. But I’m just saying, right? I read books, I have to go to seminars for the next 40 years to become an entrepreneur. I would rather do a business now. fail, learn, fail, and be done with it. Remember why you’re doing this is because you want to take the freedom not necessarily the money. Money is a byproduct, you do something you bring a good idea. You create a good product, you provide incredible service, people will reward you and reward comes in the form of profit. It’s not about a client. It’s not about the customer. It’s not about revenues. It’s not about anything. It’s about you doing something much bigger than you and having a bigger impact than anybody else. And people can take in yours, whatever you created into their lives, and now in slightly raising their quality of life because you created something and because now they are getting profits are they’re getting the benefits. You they raise your value by giving you some profits. That’s the equation there. Hopefully I connected the dots. Okay, I’m going to stop you at this has gone too far.
The takeaway from this podcast today is this. Keep accelerating your desire to become an entrepreneur despite the situation that you are in right now. Keep it alive and you keep on waking up every day to this idea and then awakening yourself through your own learnings on a daily basis on an incremental basis and soon you’ll arrive there okay that’s all for now take care