The need for Experience to deliver a Lecture on Entrepreneurship
A Bootstrapper’s Diary
Stories of successful Internet companies are heart warming fairy-tales – after they have exacted their fair share of efforts, from the founders, to get scripted. Any news of Internet success in the market leaves the self proclaimed ‘gurus’ mouth-watering, with an appetite to use start-up jargons and generous doses of ass-kissing, to give their ‘I told you so’ nuggets for wannbae entrepreneurs. Start-up lessons are a dime a dozen in the WWW, as there are MBAs and weekend hackers. What leaves an odd taste in the mouth is that very few come from people with any experience at all. Most are abstract and aimless cliches feeding illusions of milk, honey and big-money which often work to the reader’s disadvantage.
Disadvantageous because, only entrepreneurs with real experience talk about setbacks and challenges (those everyday realities of business) rather than predictable fluff (build smart products; be committed as founders; stay ahead of competition) . Any straight talk is glaringly missing in today’s discourses. These fake pundits have taught us enough to celebrate success, which may not be a bad idea by itself, as long as we don’t miss out on discussing those practical techniques that help in reaching the goal without quitting.
As an entrepreneur that has sustained the same business for 2 years, without soliciting or even needing an investment, I frequently get asked “How do you do it?” and “What is the journey like?”. Beyond all these plaudits, I sincerely feel, Muziboo could have gotten here faster with some sensible advice – admittedly, this was hard to come by. Hence my decision to take it upon myself, to discuss ( and not teach ) through a series of posts all our experiences and learnings that we (Prateek and I) have gained through Muziboo under the heading ‘A Bootstrapper’s Diary’ in this blog.
