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Monthly Archives: December 2014


Great Ideas Don’t Spring Instantly, You Need to Work Them to Make it Happen

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Great ideas

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”- Albert Einstein

Behind every successful business is a great idea; when we look upon some of the brilliant works from amazing personalities like Einstein, Thomas Alva Edison and many more, we feel awestruck, thinking how anybody could even strike of such a brilliant idea?

But in reality, those great ideas don’t come on command, but it comes after thought process, observation, and having the thorough knowledge about the industry or niche that they would like to discover or enter the industry.

It’s a myth that most entrepreneurs search for ideas looking at a newspaper, magazine or internet for market trends and business opportunities in the marketplace but the fact is different. The survey of the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics PSED, where new business founders surveyed showed that only one-third (33.2%) of them were engaged in deliberate or systematic search for their new business ideas, whereas 70.9 percent of the new business founders indicated that their business opportunities wasn’t a one-time thing, but it was built over the years.

Let’s go deeper to learn more about starting with a great business idea

From my personal experience I can elaborate business ideas are in the below three ways

By Accident:

As a PhD student at Stanford University, California, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin in January 1996 were doing a research project, they came up with a better idea, they analyzed the relationship between the website and the search engines, unlike the conventional search engines that ranked the results by counting the number of times the search terms displayed on the page. Upon their deep understanding of the subject and accidental approach of the idea they further developed it and today the world depends on Google for everything.

Young Entrepreneurs with a passion to do with their own savings:

Steve Jobs with Apple, Bill Gates with Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, started their business when they were young, from their own savings, chased their business ideas to build an emperor, which now stands with thousands of people working under their pillar. It’s all about passion, lighting your ideas in the right direction and having consistent in carrying out the same. It is surely not an easy task, one need to delve inside it to bring out the best of the class.

Through Years of Experience:

As per PSED, nearly 55.9 percent of entrepreneurs attribute the identification of their business ideas from their experience while working in an industry or market. Study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses found that nearly 43 percent of the time, the founder’s previous job was the source of inspiration for their idea to come up with a business.

My own experience speaks about this. Being a middle-aged Software professional, having passion to do business from my earlier days, gaining knowledge about the subject, understanding the customer’s demand and studying the business models, I launched my business at the right time in an App industry. My dream project Space-O, which I started with just 4 people, has now grown to 140 team members in a gap of 4 years. Just like the inspiration from Einstein below, I look my success as a mere stepping stone for my next endeavor.

“Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance.”

My advice to young entrepreneurs out there is to take even the silliest ideas into deep thought, visualize your main stage and be with your goal, because you will never know when your idea will strike to make billions in the market.

This entry was posted in Random Thoughts and tagged Great Ideas on December 24, 2014 by Rakesh Patel.

‘A’ Players Outshine & Are Need of the Hour, Especially for the Start-up’s

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A Grade Player

“I noticed that the dynamic range between what an average person could accomplish and what the best person could accomplish was 50 or 100 to 1.Given that, you’re well advised to go after the cream of the cream. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.” – Steve Jobs

We all are sailing in the competitive intelligence industry, where the competition is fierce especially for the Startup world. As per the fundable’s infographic, 565,000 Startups are launched each month in the United States and they raise an average of $78,406 totaling to $531 BB per year. At times, this fierce competition is good for startup’s success.

There are plenty of reason for the success of Start-up’s but my focal point here is A-Players.

Steve Jobs, when introducing the Apple Computer, came with the phrase “‘A’ Players hire ‘A’ Players, ‘B’ Players hire ‘C’ Players”.

My own experience validates with his. A true leader does not bother or feel threatened by the success of their subordinates, hence they are more likely to go for ‘A’ Players. Most successful companies like TATA’s, Infosys, GE etc., are flourishing, basically the companies hire ‘A’ Players.

And most companies who are into technology and knowledge based industries will totally agree with me in having ‘A’ Players. As rightly said by Hunter, Schmidt and Judiesch, the top 1% of workers are anywhere from 50% to 127% more productive than the average worker. The roles played by the A-workers are more complex, that demands greater productivity with good performance.

Recruiting ‘A’ Players

Albeit Generic advice – “Only hire ‘A’ Players.”

No matter how good one’s product or service is, without great talent, the organization fails. Many startup’s absolute necessity is to go and hire best and the brightest, I know it may be out of budget for some, but few money spent now will surely bring in more $$$ in long run.

But how do you judge the best ‘A’- players?

It’s a tough process to recruit smart players, you need to move smartly in getting them. A path which many CEO’s follow; recruiting ‘A’ Players by themselves rather than depending on their subordinates, as the CEO knows what kind of service or knowledge they are expecting from them.

The below 5 characteristics can help you in selecting right ‘A’ Candidate

Fierce Competition minded – a true leadership quality

‘A’ – Players don’t give excuses, but they execute. They put their foot front and take the responsibility for their performance and they desire to compete no matter what the subject is or how tough the situation is.

They set their mind to win:

A true player will have undisturbed mindset about the company’s performance. They are mentally tough and passionate about their job and organization. They make a valuable contribution to any business wherever they step in. They are hard-task masters.

Self-discipline:

I strongly believe that, only a person who inculcate self-discipline will do well in their life, it is very much true especially for startup companies where there are more chances of failure; A-Players who are able to motivate themselves and keep focused, who can prioritize the works and needs can boost company and help other folks who will thread their path to success along with them.

Integrity & Attitude:

It’s a universal fact that A-players have attitude, but their willingness to change approach when needed, and shed down the prejudice of winning all the time will help them in great heights. Integrity is important in winning and for that the player should have team spirit

Predict ahead:

A good company knows, what is coming next or their future business to certain extent; as they research, analyze, study the trend, then they anticipate and execute or act accordingly.so with A-Players, they need to adequately prepare, keep their task focused and move quickly with their innate sense. They always need to capture the opportunity to develop and move ahead of time.

I have always believed and continue to, that the company’s core value lies with ‘A’ Player team. I put my faith in my ‘A’ Players, more than technology, because they can make ‘zillion’ of things with their intellectual mind.

This entry was posted in Random Thoughts and tagged A Grade Ninjas on December 8, 2014 by Rakesh Patel.

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