After reading few articles of contemporary Indian entrepreneurs, I am forced to write about my view of entrepreneurship. The focus of this piece would be talk about where does the power, to handle the ambiguities that entrepreneurship has to offer, comes from. Further, please take the content of this article with a pinch of salt as this is from a struggling entrepreneur who has not got even a single product out of the door yet:).
Several people have claimed that entrepreneurs take this risky venture with a strong motive to accumulate wealth. Fewer others have alleged that the entrepreneurs are after fame and success. Let me first address these two claims about entrepreneurship. I think people who become entrepreneurs for money have it completely wrong – because however money you can earn – their will be someone richer than you – so what’s the point in slogging so much. Now, the second one if entrepreneur is doing it for fame – he/she is more disillusioned than the first one as you are soon going to be a football of other’s opinions and you will have to every now and then live upto someone else’s expectations – I am sure not a good proposition.
Now let’s look at it with another lens – entrepreneurship as one optimal way of attaining the divine. If we read Geeta, it is clear that the first stage of attaining salvation or God is Nishkam Karma Yoga (Yoga of self less action) followed by Jnana Yoga (Yoga of knowledge) and Bhakti Yoga (Yoga of Devotion). One can never be ready for the stage of Bhakti Yoga till the time he/she has become completely detached – the essential outcomes of Nishkam Karm Yoga and Jnana Yoga. So, where does entrepreneurship figure into this complex web of spirituality?
Well if you view entrepreneurship as another way to produce something (product or service) for societal good (without expecting anything for yourself) you are in some sense taking the purest form of Nishkam karma Yoga - essentially readying you to for the future stages of Bhakti Yoga. Entrepreneurship, due to its sheer nature (your choice of products), provides you more degrees of freedom to do societal good. Additionally, higher societal pressures test your perseverance to detach yourself from the results of your venture. So, all in all this freedom that entrepreneurship inherently provides and the testing situation that it produces for you, proves to be a great place to practice Nishkam karma yoga – one of the pre-requisites to attain salvation.
Several people have claimed that entrepreneurs take this risky venture with a strong motive to accumulate wealth. Fewer others have alleged that the entrepreneurs are after fame and success. Let me first address these two claims about entrepreneurship. I think people who become entrepreneurs for money have it completely wrong – because however money you can earn – their will be someone richer than you – so what’s the point in slogging so much. Now, the second one if entrepreneur is doing it for fame – he/she is more disillusioned than the first one as you are soon going to be a football of other’s opinions and you will have to every now and then live upto someone else’s expectations – I am sure not a good proposition.
Now let’s look at it with another lens – entrepreneurship as one optimal way of attaining the divine. If we read Geeta, it is clear that the first stage of attaining salvation or God is Nishkam Karma Yoga (Yoga of self less action) followed by Jnana Yoga (Yoga of knowledge) and Bhakti Yoga (Yoga of Devotion). One can never be ready for the stage of Bhakti Yoga till the time he/she has become completely detached – the essential outcomes of Nishkam Karm Yoga and Jnana Yoga. So, where does entrepreneurship figure into this complex web of spirituality?
Well if you view entrepreneurship as another way to produce something (product or service) for societal good (without expecting anything for yourself) you are in some sense taking the purest form of Nishkam karma Yoga - essentially readying you to for the future stages of Bhakti Yoga. Entrepreneurship, due to its sheer nature (your choice of products), provides you more degrees of freedom to do societal good. Additionally, higher societal pressures test your perseverance to detach yourself from the results of your venture. So, all in all this freedom that entrepreneurship inherently provides and the testing situation that it produces for you, proves to be a great place to practice Nishkam karma yoga – one of the pre-requisites to attain salvation.
Some may argue that since you are completely detached from the results of your actions, how would you give everything that you have to the venture. I will argue about the pursuit of excellence without expectation of anything in my next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment