Entrepreneurial Problems

If you ask most of the students who get into a B-School in India about their ambitions, it would be to start a company or to be an entrepreneur. But most of us know the problems that we might face if we open this topic in front of our parents... "You will not get marriage proposals...", "you will have to handle corruption!!!", "you are better off working like me for 40 years for decent salary".

Most of our parents have been working in the same organization throughout their career. They were comfortably placed, they could plan for a house before retirement, 2 or 3 kids, their education and finally retirement corpus fund. When they look back they think it might be almost impossible if you don't adopt their path. They have seen inflation, their salaries have grown from Rs 100 month in 1967 (where they managed to save Rs 20 for themselves and send Rs 20 back home) to Rs 40000 now. They have seen gold grow from nowhere to Rs 16k now. What does this mean? Fear!!! Yes, a great fear. They are not sure if their kid is ready to face these challenges in the long run.

That's the reason why most of the parents force their son or daughter to get married soon after their MBA (around 25... 26) or ensure that they buy a house immediately. That way they are sure that their son/ daughter is responsible ("doesn't try anything risky- especially on business front") for next 20 to 25 years (the loan tenure). What does the kid do.? Always in a confused state until they are married when they finally realize that they have a family to take care of. Then they buy a house... kids... if they stop with 1 its fine else... :)
so the financial pressures start mounting and they start feeling just like the way their parents had felt many years back. A vicious cycle. Isn't it?

Starting a new venture is challenging:
1. Money
2. Relationship
3. Time

all of them go for a toss temporarily. But in a year or 2, you will be fine. You would have understood the strength of your business plan. You might have to get into another job (I am sure you will get a lot... because you know what failure means) just to raise money so that you could start something later... may be 10 year later when you see some white hair around...

Let's come out of this vicious cycle and get on to our dream of making India the most powerful nation. This is democracy and lets not give away our dreams for few emotional factors which can always be managed.