You have it all....!

Many "can-be" entrepreneurs come to me all fired up and with original ideas. I often wonder why some superb ideas didn't really fly. I did check a few out. Some kinda' confessed they weren't ready with all that it takes to get started. If you don't have these, you can't move - is how they felt. While some of the reasons were real like the basic documents, market data, scale up plan etc., there were some things which were in fact hyped up.

Let me use this space to tell folks like those what they don't necessarily need....

1. You don't need VC diesel to get your motor running. Working nights or putting money aside to run full-time for three months is enough to get off the ground if you have a great idea and enough passion to make it matter.

2. You can actually charge money for valuable services. People have never been more willing to part with their credit cards to pay for services that improve their business or their life. You don't need to spend hours in meetings pondering HOW TO MONITIZE?! when all you need is a service worth paying for.

3. You don't need mainstream tech to make a dent. No wonder you have a hard time finding people if you're only looking at the mainstream tech circles. You're competing for talent with all the risk-averse insurance companies of the world. To get access to the cream of the crop, you just need People bustling with passion to develop using tools they love.

4. You don't need to live in San Francisco to make it big. Or rather, if you want to make it big, don't live in San Francisco. You'll get sucked in to the myths (you need VC!) and drowned by the parties. Most of the world’s talent does not live in that tiny spot of land. The core team can come from anywhere so long as they share a common goal and passion.

5. You don't need a swarm of worker bees to take off. Of course its hard to find 10 or 20 great people by tomorrow, but you don't have to. We're entering a golden age of small teams capable of doing big things. Just get a band of three together and you're good to go for v1. Using modern tools and simply doing less software means that having more people is likely to slow you down rather than speed you up.

So let's just get started....!

It's OK if you suck....

Every successful business has a dirty little secret: They didn’t know if they were going to be successful when they started. They probably did their homework, researched the market and had a bit of experience. But there were no guarantees.

I just finished a book about Google called The Search, by John Battelle. What I learned from the book is that it’s easy to look at a company like Google and say "Larry and Sergey are so impressive. They had a vision to change the world and they did it. I could never be like that."

The truth is, they had no idea if they were going to succeed when they started. What if Larry had said to Sergey, "Hmmm, I don’t know Sergey. Surely somebody has already figured out this search thing - and they probably know what they’re doing! We’re just a couple of college kids so let’s just play it safe and get good jobs at a stable company."

This is all very similar to when you realise that your parents don’t know everything. All the sudden it hits you that there are no black and white rules and that you’ve got to start figuring things out for yourself. Starting a company is exactly the same. All those people and businesses that you look up to and respect - they’re just like you. They don’t have some special magic expertise that helps them make good decisions - they have to figure it out for themselves and hope they make the right call.

I think a great example of my point is da Vinci’s masterpiece, La Gioconda, also known as the Mona Lisa. When he sat down to paint it, he had no idea that it would become one of the world’s most famous paintings.

What if he had waited until he was sure he was going to paint a masterpiece? The answer is that he probably would’ve never started.

Get used to being uncomfortable and allow yourself to suck at times.

It’s totally normal to try and err and it’s a good sign that you’re pushing yourself.

When you get nervous about starting your own company, or launching that new product, just remember that even the best of the best felt nervous and uncomfortable when they started. Just like you, they took a gamble and hoped for the best, with no guarantees of success.

Get a load of this.....The sooner you’re OK with feeling scared, the sooner you can get on with executing your ideas.

Private Equity players had it....!

PE players in India who went madly after B-grade travel portals and C-grade brokerages took it in the chin after the last week's crash. Last seen this breed wailing their way out of their offices ( some got pink slip probably, or soon will...! ) .

Those who have seen their awful grin before the media announcing their choice of investment whispered a silent prayer in unison. The saw it coming probably. But who listens ? Private Equity mandarins were at their invincible best....how can they ever fail ?!

God bless this breed !!!!