This was a conference with businessmen of small medium sector in UAE. I fondly recall Sri Ramamurthi, group CEO, Bank of Baroda, Dubai who introduced me as a speaker who can retain the attention of audience even if the session is just before lunch. Nice words from a nice gentlemen. I fondly addressed the gathering as a failed entrepreneur. The session created a wave of goodwill, as anything spoken from heart than head appeals to the hearts of people instantaneously.
- i have no hesitation in documenting my failure in the public domain as it is not a failure but a learning curve. Many wonder when i rattle the quotes every day, whether it is a Gyan just floated in air. No, they are the outcome of takeaways from my failures as well.
Dr.DD's speech at Ritz-Carlton at IBPC Dubai.
Date: 23th Feb 2013
Speech transcript...
"Respected Chairman, IBPC members,
Distinguished Dignitaries & Friends.
At the outset, I thank the organizers
for giving me this wonderful opportunity of interacting with all of you,
entrepreneurs.
A calm sea never produces a skillful
mariner. Navigating on shallow water near the shore without exploring the sea
is a sin. Not taking a risk in our life is a sin in my opinion.
I salute all of you – the risk takers
who focus on “value addition” than just “validation”. As value creators, I consider you as the
creamy layer of the society. SME business is the backbone of any economy.
Well, given my time slot, I do not have
the liberty of extending my vocal skills on exchange of pleasantries. Hence,
let me take you to my topic – ‘Failure is an option, but fear is not’ – An
entrepreneurial perspective.
There is a saying that for a 3 hour talk
you can prepare in 30 minutes and for a 3 minute talk you have to prepare for
30 hours. But I have not come here with any prepared script. Today I decided to
speak from my heart than from my head. It will be more of my experience &
emotions than structured/research reports.
Three issues I intending touching upon –
- The
fragile economic world & the competitive landscape
- The
willingness to embrace failures
- My
personal experience as an entrepreneur
Let us take each one by one ….
1). The Fragile economic world today
Every day we hear about declining
GDPs/growing unemployment and so on. I do not want to repeat them here … let me
tell you a story …
‘Year 2008, It was a beach town in the
Caribbean islands. One day a rich tourist walked into a hotel. The whole town
was deserted. These were bad times. Everyone was in debt.
The guest pays 100 US$ to the hotel
manager. He told the manager that he will go up and see the room and come back.
The hotel manager uses this 100 USD to
pay the past debt to the butcher. The butcher in turn pays his debt to the
sheep grower. He in turn pays back his debt to the fuel supplier. The fuel
supplier in turn pays back the 100 USD to the same hotel to settle his old
debt.
Mean while the tourist comes back. He
did not like the room. He took back the 100 USD not and walked out.
No one earned anything. But everyone was
out of debt. Everyone’s credit limit revived. The end result of all these fancy
method is the great recession. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not
progress. Every economy thought that it was growing but in reality there was
only ‘motion’ and not ‘progresses’.
The epicenter of all these was in United
States and tremor was felt all around – economic chaos all around.
We went through series of changes in
economic themes –
Growth Growth
Growth first, Austerity next
Austerity First, Growth Next
Austerity Austerity
Growth with Austerity
Growth & Austerity are
oxymorons. Today we have two contrasting
forces pulling us in different directions
- Debt contraction compulsions.
- Refusal to accept sacrifices on the part
of people.
Developed nations are not able to force
sacrifice on people, hence they soft peddle the debt contraction option. They
take new debt and repay old debt. The nations are rolling over their finances.
They are just elongating the detonating wires and delay the blast than diffuse
the blast.
The other day an SME sector businessman
was telling me that his financiers are telling him that he was over leveraged.
While the Debt to GDP leverage ratio of nations are near 100%, he complained
that his financiers advise him to deleverage – this is strange paradox.
This is the fragile economic world
today. We are living in troubled times. But we can not complain. The role of
entrepreneurship is pronounced more in these troubled times. We need more
entrepreneurs, more risk takers – But we should not be afraid of failures. Now we came to the second issue ‘Embrace
Failures’ ….
2). Embrace failures …
You might have heard of the stories of
achievers from motivational Gurus. Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Alva Edison, Sir
C.V.Raman – all of them achieved after fighting innumerable battles. I will not
address these again as you might be already familiar.
I will narrate the story of an SME
sector businessman in USA.
A business execute was in deep debt and
could see no way out. He sat on a park wondering what to do. Suddenly an old
man appeared, listened to him and said ‘I can help you. Take this money, meet
me exactly one year at the same place. You can pay me back at that time’.
He gave a cheque 5 million USD signed by
Jhon D.Rock Feller, the richest oil magnet of that time.
The executive instead of using the
cheque kept it in his safe and started with renewed optimism At the back of the
mind the 5 million USD was giving comfort to him. Slowly he came out if his
debt, while the cheque was lying in his safe.
Exactly one year later he went back to
the park. The old man appeared. Just before handing over his cheque, a hospital
nurse came running, she said, ‘good I caught him. I hope he is not bothering
you. He goes on telling people that he is Jhon D.Rock Feller. He is actually a
patient of our hospital’.
The executive was stunned. He realized
it was not the real but imaginary money that gave him the courage, that courage
made all the difference, Humility in success and courage in failure is what we
have to follow. Failure is an option, but fear is not!
3). Preacher or Practitioner ….
Now we come to the third issue. It is
always easy to preach than practice. Ronald Regan one said – ‘When your
neighbor loses the job you call it a normal business cycle, but when you lose
your job you call it a great depression’.
Similarly a question may arise in your
mind whether I have ever faced a failure – Am I talking here as a preacher or a
practitioner of entrepreneurship. The question is valid. Here is my story …
Life was a smooth ride for me, nice
things were happening at a right times. During this easy phase, I was also not
an exception that hits everyone, yes; I am talking about the entrepreneurial
bug. Your life is successful; you have spent a decent time on other’s business
expansion. Why not we do ourselves! This bug also hit me. Success is lousy teacher; it seduces the smart people to think that
they can never go wrong. If you are
successful in one area, you tend to think you will be successful in all areas. The
tail wing was taking me to the dizzy heights with no exposure to failures. Ego is an anesthetic that deadens the pain of stupidity.
Repository of ego base started setting into my system slowly. I was feeling
that the bottom is overcrowded; therefore I should reach the top quickly.
Then came the sudden wind that twisted the whole
picture, a wave of macroeconomic changes, led me to face the jaws of my first
defeat on my first entrepreneurial move.
The people who betted on me departed,
the friends who invested with me turned into vociferous foes, the illustrious
personalities on my board who voluntarily annexed themselves with me, resigned
from the board immediately at the first sight of the problems in my business
model. Suddenly I saw chaos around me. I started getting so many free advices.
No one had time to go into the process of “why the failure”, but everyone
looked at the outcome and not the process. I realized the world rewards the end
and not the means. The world recognizes the performance and not the passion.
Getting back to the MNC corporate main
stream was as a problem, as they do not take the executives who take
entrepreneurship, seriously. The question that crossed my mind was – How do we
handle failures, miseries and manage success or happiness? Success is your friend, failure is your teacher, I thought. Excess
happiness syndrome and the lack of exposure to failure daunted me, tested me.
I had two options – “Brood over, Get
frustrated and perish” or “Accept the realities, identify my USP and understand
to recreate myself”.
I opted for the second one, I could not
revive the unit or invest in that unit I could not get back to my plum job in a
MNC – hence I took up a reasonable position in a relatively small corporate
belonging to a Board of Director of my failed company.
The Board of Director who took a risk on
me at this bad phase is a UAE based Businessman to whom I will ever be
grateful. In Ten years I could do my doctorate, establish our corporate brand
strongly in the market and stand in front of you with the wisdom gained, in the
form of the book “A Saint in the
Boardroom” Every pain has a gain, you see. Have you every failed in your
life? If not, I invite you to taste the thrills of the failure. I guarantee
you; you will become a balanced personality with abundant wisdom. Success tells you what you are; Failure
tells you who you are. Failure is an option, while fear in not. Folks, it does
not matter what happens to you in life, but what you do when something happens
is the key.
Having staked my claim of being a Practioner
of entrepreneurship, now I take you to my concluding session –Concluding
Remarks
We can control a process/strategy but can
not control the outcome. Failures may erupt we need to fight it out. The champions are not made in the gym but
are made in the inner walls of the chambers of your soul. You are fighting the
greatest wars in the silent chambers of your soul. Fight it out ….
Life
may crown you or crucify you on a cross…
Chase
your passion but learn to face the outcome of whatever nature. Focus on the
roots and not on fruits. Failure will
teach you great lessons. Don’t shy away from failures in your entrepreneurial
role. Never give up – stay hungry, stay
positive, grow your risk appetite. Convert your inner sparks into fames of
achievement. Continue to build entrepreneurial spirits into the societal DNA.
Finally,
again, I invite you to taste the thrills of failure. I guarantee you that
eventually you will win!
-
Good
Luck!!"
