Starting Up!!!

Its been around 4 months now that I quit the secure & safe prospects of my job to start-up as a freelance consultant. It has been a mixed bag of feelings upto now. I had my own feelings when I was almost convinced of starting-up. Few things I thought will be good have turned out to be much better (so much better that I even took those situations for granted at times)….and few things I thought that “Yes, this could be bad. I should be mentally prepared.”…turned out to be much worse, to the point of breaking up.

I am not planning way ahead into the future. I am not made like that. I am certain that am into this for next few years now, so soon I need to create a team, some staff…basically build up into a small company. It’s all very easy to sing about the joys and pains…the challenges and thrills of being an entrepreneur, but now when i am into it, my advice is “What on earth makes someone to get into this chaos??”

To make it short & simple, let me bullet my ideas.

What it demands:

1. Self-Discipline. And loads of it. Or you will find yourself doing all other tasks other than work

2. Patience and Positivity. Again lots of it. In my third month I was almost a wreck. Sitting and working alone in a room the whole day is no feast. Esp. when you don’t have much friends/social life in the city. It is just some subtle inangible feeling of optimism and hope that has been sailing me through these tough times.

3 . Vision. I won’t say much on this since I lack this. What i must say is that it has got a lot to do with self-belief and confidence.

4. Multi-Tasking. You are on your own. If you don’t pay the bills on time, the internet/electricity is gone. If you don’t get the systems maintenance, they brake on the day when you just cannot afford it. In other words, it’s planning your day and executing it well (ie., time-management). This has been my weakest link. 😦

5. Networking. You are cut-off from the outside world. No more chats by the office water-cooler or the coffee machine. There are no emails coming from the senior management briefing you about what’s happening in the outside world. Nobody is reaching out to me. I have to reach out to others.

Now the good points…What does starting-up provides you. Though each point below comes with a caveat: “Don’t go overboard!!!”

1. Be Your Own Boss. Yes..that is true! 🙂 You don’t feel like working today…fine go out for a break. You don’t want to miss the IND-PAK match..go ahead watch it. Your girlfriend/wife says that you don’t have time for her…now she won’t. 😀 But again, don’t go overboard. You are accountable to your clients here and want to be in their good books. And that’s what you are here for.

2. Do your own things. Did you plan to take those Salsa classes?? Have u been thinking of learning a sport?? Do it now brother! With a pinch of self-discipline and effective time-management, a lot can be achieved.

3. Out of the herd. You are pushed, rather you have pulled yourself apart from the crowd. You are on your own. So you learn to market yourself and convince your prospective clients. And this is something I am learning the most.

Now that I have touched this area of discussion, would write on this later.

adios!

Hope, Greed and Fear…

With the indian stock market booming in last few weeks, I hoped that its time to make some easy money. “Easy Money”…i was giving way to greed. I made good profits in the beginning and ended up putting all of it back into the market. The sensex has taken a plunge today.

Nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow. Its fear all around now. Everybody is nervous and panicky. My fingers are crossed. I am still hopeful for tomorrow. Will have to wait and watch how the story unfolds.

Few lessons learnt:

1. Do not OVER-EXPOSE yourself. Invest only if its ok when you loose 50% of it.

2. When in doubt…drop out. You can always invest tomorrow and book profits

3. Always have some surplus funds in your savins account. You never know when a good buying opportunity surfaces out of a sudden

Running!

I will be running in the Vodafone Delhi Half-Marathon. Though i registered myself almost a month back, today was my first training day. I was panting after my 20 minute jog, would faint if i hit the marathin with this stamina. Will increase my laps every day, there is no other way.

The other important thing is diet. Seth, my friend, has been training himself for almost a month now. He says he has lost 7 kgs in 22 days!!! He asked me to follow his diet – plenty of fruits and salads, and soya milk. 😀 Sounds interesting!!!

I need to pull these 11 days. Atleast i will loose enough weight to get in shape to fit into my jeans and t-shirts without a bulging tummy.

Finally….Hello world!

Hello All.

Finally, am writing in public again! Finally, i gave in to pull of this blogging world. This blog will be a space to express my views, half-cooked ideas, hazy plans and many more things. I have been working in solitude for almost 2 months now, since i started working from home. So i need somebody to talk to. And who better than the netizens.

When i started reading blogs around 1.5 years ago, the idea of writing publicly confused me. I thought “what on earth makes u think that i have all time to read whatever u write??!!!” But we all need to socialize, discuss, collaborate in some form or the other.

I hope i have found a good way to do this.

TheFreebird.