Entrepreneurs are very driven individuals who have a moving target all the time
This is a very philosophical me as this is something I think about a lot.
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| Anurag Batra |
Why become an entrepreneur? What is so compelling in the fabric of an entrepreneur’s DNA that compels him to explore this path? Surely, there is security in a job, and it is more than just for making money that an entrepreneur pursues entrepreneurship. It is akin to a painter painting, a sculptor working on a sculpture—it is more than just the task at hand, the pleasure of working on something that they want to do. Sometimes, it is much simpler, like when the mountaineer was asked why he was climbing the mountain, he simply said, “Because it’s there!” In essence, the painter would cease to exist if he did not paint, so the real question, so eloquently phrased by Shakespeare, is “To be or not to be?”
There is a saying “I love Plato but I love truth more.” Being an entrepreneur, for the most, is all about finding truth. Truth, in turn, is an everlasting and enduring sentiment and institution and so is entrepreneurship.
The reason I am asking this fundamental question of why should someone become an entrepreneur is something that I wish to seek an answer to.
Perhaps the answer lies in trying to find what drives an entrepreneur. Is it fame? Is it money? Is it the opportunity to make a difference to the lives of others and to the environment around you? Is it a bit of a self-serving phenomenon? Or is it serendipity—something that just happens?
In truth, the answer may be all the above, and more.
Entrepreneurs are very driven individuals who have a moving target all the time. I asked myself this question, in the larger context of life, saying what is the purpose of life? Ultimately, entrepreneurship is no different than life.
About six weeks ago I was in a lecture by a successful entrepreneur in the media and the education business, who was lecturing on leadership and management. It set me thinking on why the entrepreneur was lecturing about it. Of course, somewhere it’s about the need for self actualisation (from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), but as a fellow entrepreneur I started to question my reasons for being an entrepreneur.
In my case, the honest answer is that I got fired and had no job, so when an opportunity to be an entrepreneur came along, I thanked God and took the plunge.
Why am I, as an entrepreneur who genuinely believes entrepreneurship is all about action, execution and making things happen, philosophising?
Why should an entrepreneur, or for that matter a human being, be interested in philosophy? Isn’t philosophy fit only for fools, or is it merely academic trifling and hair-splitting in search of unobtainable knowledge? Or perhaps philosophy is mostly a set of false illusions from the past—sophistries designed to comfort one’s desires by wishful thinking and presumption—that these days have been replaced by science and mathematics?
I can be fairly brief about why philosophy ought to be studied in some sense and why the opinion that it is useless trifling, hair-splitting or in search of unobtainable knowledge is inappropriate.
Philosophy provides insights and thumb rules to entrepreneurs and inspiration and role models to emulate.
So why be an entrepreneur? Honestly, I have not yet been able to answer that. Maybe by the time I write my next column for DARE I will have some answers.
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 co founder and editor-in-chief of exchange4media group which includes exchange4media.com.
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