DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

While first-generation entrepreneurs treat their businesses as babies, it is equally important for third or fourth generation entrepreneurs to take their established businesses to the next level

Recently I was part of a panel discussion on UTV Bloomberg and Mini Menon was moderating it. We were talking about Kolkata and Bengalis and their work ethics. We were discussing how traditionally Kolkata and West Bengal were the fountainhead of entrepreneurship in India.

Anurag Batra

We also talked about how Marwaris have become synonymous with entrepreneurship in India. Mini shared an interesting anecdote about some people being born with a silver spoon. She said something that got me thinking: She said she met an extremely wealthy fourth generation entrepreneur in Kolkota who remarked that his was the first generation in his family that was now having to work.

Now think about it. Isn't he blessed? We have all heard the maxim 'Work is Worship'.

Consider an entrepreneur who has an established enterprise—something that his or her great grandfather created. What is his or her motivation to work? Is it about curiosity and being enterprising to create further value? My simple answer is that it is his or her own drive and the experience and legacy that drives him or her. Entrepreneurs do not necessarily think of their tombstones but actually enjoy the process of creating an enterprise. It is about taking the enterprise to the next level of growth, to explore, enter and establish in newer area of business.

The fourth generation entrepreneur is on a journey of self actualization. Money may drive him and his size of ambition, but there is something more to it.

Look at Bill Gates—the man is the richest person on the earth. For close to 28 years he has dominated the world and is now training his curiosity and energy on creating social enterprises.

I have written in the past as well that entrepreneurs, apart from the fact that they are creating wealth for their shareholders, are also answering a higher calling. It is about creating something unique, like a musician does, or a painter does. It is about self actualization.

This fourth generation entrepreneur could have easily rested on his family's laurels and could have actualized himself in other ways, but he chose to try and build the enterprise to a new level.

I have never had the good fortune of meeting the legendary and iconic late KK Birla, but I am told that he enjoyed his work so much that he was working till his last breath and believed that he was lucky and special that god had chosen him to work.

Entrepreneurs are, in some ways, the real terms Karmyogis.

Is there a lesson and advice for young scions who join well established businesses passed on to them by their families, fathers and grandfathers?

Yes, there are three lessons:

1. What is your plan to take the enterprise to the next level?
2. Can you intertwine these plans with your interests?
3. Can you add a social dimension?

I am not a specialist or a management consultant on family businesses, but I say this by observing some brilliant success stories of third or fourth generation entrepreneurs.

Creating a new enterprise is like giving birth to a baby and taking an existing enterprise to the next level is like raising the baby and making a man or woman out of him or her. Both are equally important.

Anurag Batra is real life, first-generation entrepreneur who is Much Below Average (MBA) from the prestigious Management Development Institute, MDI. When he is not busy writing such columns, he can be reached at anuragbatrayo@gmail.com.

Anurag is the founder and editor-in-chief of exchange4media group which includes exchange4media.com.

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