On starting up

Last four months have been like a new birth to me, I realized my passion for entrepreneurship - the lust for ideas and making it tangible in the real world. These four months offered a new learning experience with so many lessons that even an entire book could not suffice. However, just to share it with like-minded people, I want to enlist some of the learnings here:

• Ideas are precious. Share it, but with caution.
  
  
• People won't appreciate(they don't generally know how to), they won't see a future(most of them are myopic!), they would question your ability(they seriously think that you're infertile!), they would say it's not the right time(they're unsure about themselves and they want to paste their diffidence upon you!).
  
  Just listen to them. Revel at the fact that you've been gifted with the passion for the idea that no-one else has.
  
  
• Find a partner. Who is passionate, different and trustworthy. Shake hands, firmly.
  
  
• Partner with a person who (a) you're really compatible with, (b) who is totally different from you in skill-set, and (c) who shares the same passion and vision for the idea as you. Respect him/her.
  
  
• Make sure that your partner is staunchly critical yet not offensive. Be the same to him. Stauncher, if possible.
  
  
• It's not the one with whom you first shared your idea, who can be your partner. It's the one who first shared the excitement for your idea, who can be your partner. Remember.
  
  
• Once done with the skeleton, meet 'talented' people - the creative ones - who can suggest ways to improve your idea when they don't like something, instead of just smashing it. It polishes your idea.
  
  
• Avoid losers. It's easy to recognize them. They'll always suggest why something can't be done instead of suggesting something that can be done. They would take away the input and give you no output.
  
  
• Welcome critics, but avoid cynics. It keeps you encouraged.
  
  
• While hiring people, always remember that enthusiasm precedes talent. It holds for you too.
  
  
• If your friend's advices are really good, include them. If not, smile and say, 'Thank you.' Remaining unperturbed when unwanted suggestions are flooding in is an asset for an entrepreneur. It offers you stability.
  
  
• Hire people who're frank enough to say, 'I want to join you because I want money.' They would tell you before they ditch you.
  
  
• While making your core team, remember that long distance relationship sucks! Make sure your team-members are near to you, so that you can fuel their enthusiasm frequently, assess their work and see the progress yourself. It makes things easy.
  
  
• Seek friends who you respect and who respect you, for suggestions. Mutual respect is really important. It enhances creative output.
  
  
• Be happy with yourself and your idea. It brings confidence.
  
  
• Write - your ideas, your learnings and your plans. It brings clarity.

P.S. Add more to the list by commenting. It'll help other readers.

Life

It's a new day.

I get up and say.

'Today, I am gonna run!'

'For sure, it's gonna be fun.'

Somebody once told me that life's a race.

This is the only reality you've to face.

I agreed to it, thinking, 'How true?'

Run, that's what I am supposed to do.

Oh! it's gonna be fun.

This race called life, I'm gonna run!

I run and run until the day comes to an end.

I come back home, smashing my friends.

Accomplished, happy, but tired.

I drop to my bed. Bleary-eyed.

And fall into the trap of my dreams.

Where the race ain't over, that's what it seems.

It's another race there.

Tougher, if not equal, I swear!

Life's a race, how true?

That's the little secret I would tell you.

For years, the process continues.

Successes many, failures few.

I grow old, still racing.

Without any idea of what I have been chasing.

Years go by, my fate awaits.

It seems bad, as if I had missed something great.

The messenger of 'Death' appears.

I am dreadfully tired, full of tears.

For, my time has come.

I can't see what I have done.

And what, undone!

In a bass tone, he speaks to me.

As though a grave decree.

'I can't take you!' He commands.

'I'm done with my life. Why can't you?' I demand.

'Because you already died.'

'When?' I cried.

'The day you started running, out of your own choice.'

Suddenly, a memory flashes before my eyes.

'Weren't you the one who gave me that advice?'

'That life is a race.'

'That's the only reality what I've to face.'

'Ah! Yes, but you got it all wrong!'

'That was not even the part of my song'

Then he sang, 'Life is a grace.'

'That's the only reality, you've to face.'

My eyes open up, abruptly.

I find myself lying in dark, all lonely.

Someone pulls my head. And it's all light.

And I scream out loud, as if in fright.

A lady in white cuts the cord

That connected me to my God.

And I see, the only reality I could face

Is that life's a grace.

P.S. 'A life within a life can also be a death within a life.' This interesting thought made me compose the poem above. Hope you're able to appreciate it.