Swades : the Entrepreneurial Connection

Inspired from the recently released Bollywood movie “Swades – We, the people”

If one is wondering that this has something to do with the aforementioned movie; then let me assure you that the answer is a clear “No”. Yes, the idea is a culmination of few instances in the movie. Well, we aren’t discussing the movie anyways right!

Jean Jacques Rousseau has aptly said: “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains”. Everyone is born with almost similar physical attributes and biological functionalities, but they are so very distinct from an extraordinary few. I am addressing those “chosen few” who have climbed the ladder of success, of fame & prosperity. What went wrong with their peers, the people who couldn’t get similar accolades? Oh yes, some of them were complacent. But, the rest did aspire to repeat such acts of success; but in vain.

Now, let’s take a detour to the villages, to the parish states where every entity is living to make their both ends meet. They are going astray from being successful, from being an entrepreneur, from being what they want to be. No am not drawing your attention to any socio-economic cause. But, yes am trying to draw an analogy between the people in these villages and people whom you come across everyday say a B-school graduate. Both are so very distinct but yet both are bound with a similar fate: the same “entrepreneurial connection”. Both aspire to do great things in life but are always taken aback by the fear of unknown. You may name this unknown as risk, uncertainly, loss, failure or anything for that matter. At this stage if you want to argue with me saying that the availability of resources to both are very distinct and one cannot generalize such a thing. I must clear my stand, by saying that I do not mean entrepreneurial success of similar nature or form. One in the village may resort to success of a smaller level, but point is he was successful relative to his urban counterpart. And the fact is that this entrepreneurial connection has got nothing to do with the state of being rich or poor, of being educated or not. It’s an unending battle between your mind & your inner-self. And then when you wonder why you didn’t take up that job, that project, that idea, that venture, you know what was stopping you? Indeed, “Man is born entrepreneur, yet everywhere he stops himself from being one”.