“Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different”
When entrepreneurs start their own business, they, apart from having an idea, and passion, and a dream, need capital. At least they think they only need capital, and the rest of the skills will be hired or outsourced.
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| Anurag Batra |
Do they think that the new venture will need more than capital and ideas? Do they value nonfinancial contribution? Do they put a financial value on nonfinancial contribution? Are they seeking mentorship? Is mentoring a rewarding exercise and do start-up entrepreneurs put a value on it? John Crosby said, “Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.”
The reason I talk of mentoring is because every week a lot of young, energetic entrepreneurs come and talk to me and say they need mentoring. In fact, last week itself, a young, dynamic lady (who, incidentally, had the same alma mater as me, but she was much junior) came to me and sought my mentoring to power two ideas in the media domain. She asked me, “Anurag, do you mentor people?” Without waiting for my answer, she said, “I would like you to mentor me.”
I started thinking of mentoring as a serious endeavor. My mind was reminded of what Winston Churchill had said: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”I am a media entrepreneur, and I, myself, seek guidance, advice, and mentoring from larger entrepreneurs in the media in India. I thought it was time for me to say thank you and pay back. In fact, in zest, I keep saying that one must say thank you with a checkbook and sorry with a checkbook. I was reminded of this comical, yet very deep statement. As an entrepreneur, I was asking myself if there is a financial value to my mentoring, and if yes, how should the young entrepreneur who is receiving it pay me back. Should he or she pay me by giving equity in the business? If yes, how much equity is fair?
This thinking brought me to a larger question: Do start-up entrepreneurs value nonfinancial contributions in their business?
I started thinking about marketing and advertising costs to build a brand and immediately thought of Times Private Treaties (TPT). BCCL’s ad-for-equity business model has changed the way it does its business of bartering ad space for a stake in a client company. For one, the company has started taking a percentage of cash and the balance in equity. The BCCL and TPT’s core team works like a mentoring unit to the company management or entrepreneur to create value for all shareholders including themselves.
This is an interesting and innovative way to monetize a nonfinancial asset and entrepreneurs value it. My reading is that more and more start-up entrepreneurs are realizing the value of mentoring and will increasingly ascribe financial value to the mentoring contribution.
My belief in mentoring can be summed up by what Ruth Whitman said (the only assumption being that entrepreneurship is an art):
“In every art beginners must start with models of those who have practiced the same art before them. And it is not only a matter of looking at the drawings, paintings, musical compositions, and poems that have been and are being created; it is a matter of being drawn into the individual work of art, of realizing that it has been made by a real human being, and trying to discover the secret of its creation.”
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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.
To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Anurag Batra'.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
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written by tunde bello, March 23, 2011
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written by Paul Smith, February 26, 2011
If you appreciate my comments in you enter
I’ll see if I can try to use some of this information for my own blog. Thanks!
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