Indranil Ghosh
Nov 8, 20214 min
Updated: Jan 24, 2022
The commonest advice from most PD trainers is to become a take-charge person! What do you really understand by this phrase ‘take charge person’? According to me, it is about discovering the entrepreneurship acumen lying in slumber deep inside you, developing it further and making use of it for you.
The benchmark of this entrepreneurship acumen is when you like -
wind, spread your senses to all directions to gather information to learn from the future so that you can put forward your next step with the confidence of success.
forest, concentrate and nurture this gathered information, create an eco-system and hunt out the right and unique idea.
fire, creating a burning desire to implement the idea to bring in a breakthrough innovation that guarantees your success.
mountain, remain sustainable to your action plan till you succeed and become strong enough to withstand all of the turbulences of life.
It does not really matter whether you are an entrepreneur in a true sense or a business executive or just an office assistant. It also does not matter if you are a homemaker or a student or a retired guy living on bank interest. Whatever may be your status but the reality is you are your own CEO and you must possess all the good qualities of a CEO so that you can take charge of your life to manage it well.
There is an amount of entrepreneurship in every person, as all of us are born with many distinctive qualities to become an entrepreneur yet often they may be dormant. However, when confronted with the choice or compulsion, by way of birth in a family like a business family or a family involved in venturing out something new, or by way of education, or by way of a serious social upheaval or crisis or necessity, or, most of all by way of one's own inner aspiration, what he or she does define his/her life, destiny, leadership and entrepreneurship.
Ultimately, entrepreneurship is a choice. It can be voluntary or forced, deliberate or impulsive. The choice may be born of selfish interests or for noble purposes. The chosen leadership responsibility may be handled wisely or poorly.
Following are a few of those good qualities, which a take-charge person must have and you may also consider them as a piece of advice to become a take-charge person and develop your acumen towards entrepreneurship:
Cleanliness and Clear Image: The first and foremost requirement! It takes a lot of effort to create a positive brand value but even a trifle incident can destroy it to dust. Hence, the mantra should be ‘Cleanliness First’. You need to become ‘Mr. or Ms. Clean’ and maintain this clean status through physical or external and mental or internal cleaning.
Persistence and Resilience: You may get reduced to a molehill from the mountain but never quit. Always keep in mind ‘राय से परबत भी बनते हैं (rai se parbat bhi bante hai)’. If you are an entrepreneur, especially when you are venturing out a new endeavour or trying out to do something significantly high impacting task, break-even may even take 5 years or more. But you need to continue with passion through the peaks and troughs.
Jack of all trades but master of one! You may be specialized in one field but you must learn accounting, marketing, legal issues, HR, Quality control etc. In fact, I always advise the school students that they must learn at least four minimum skills English, Mathematics, Cycling and Swimming. Additionally, they must have Digital and Financial Literacy at an early age. Rest all other skills, as per their liking, maybe developed later.
Work and enjoy: If our life is a journey, then work is about enjoying the journey. You must have ‘दीवानगी (deewangi)’ towards your aim. Lack of resources and circumstances are no barrier. The best is to find out your IKIGAI at the earliest. IKIGAI is about finding out four things - what you love to do, in which you are good, whatever you do must have a demand and you will be paid for that. If you cannot find your IKIGAI, you at least must either do what you love to do or love whatever you do. You must also be prompt and agile.
Be adventurous: Never worry about failure as in the wonderland of entrepreneurs, there are no words like ‘failure’ and ‘luck’. What you have is ‘feedback’ as a representative of ‘failure’ and ‘luck’ as ‘labour under correct knowledge. Hence, you need a spirit of adventure, risk-taking and drive. Taking risk is far more important than worrying about managing the risk. You cannot create value and wealth without risking something. Success comes with a price tag and one of the price tags is termed as risk.
Be an Innovator: If you have an idea, just do it. Even with no money and no road map, just jump into it. Start quickly but not blindly. Do not start with a fancy business plan. Keep your ear to the ground. Weed out old ideas and plant new seeds of creativity.
Lastly, be soft by heart but hard from outside. It will earn your respect from your subordinates and peers. Help people to become a better person, much better than what you are.