- Your personal life and career will be full of things that block your way or hinder progress
- Keep your eyes on the prize, not the obstacles
- Remove obstacles one at a time
- There’s almost always a path to your goal
- Never, never never give up
Thanks Steve, for reminding these lessons to someone who has set off for an eternal journey of entrepreneurship. A journey where my idea alone is not a company, and a company is sum of technology idea, plus customers, distribution channels, pricing, partners, etc.
I completely agree to your view that Startups are not smaller versions of large companies. And new ventures are a series of untested hypotheses. However, I am trying to create a successful startup with a minimum viable audience [I solicit your attention to my MVA 
]
For past few months, I have been assiduously trying to follow what you have teaching about customer development, lean methodology and entrepreneurship. Like me, many aspiring entrepreneurs in India are doing several such exercises. But, somewhere, the mentoring is missing.
I don’t much how much it is apt , but I want to tell you a story. A story from the great Indian Mythological Epic, Mahabharta. It is about Ekalavya, (Sanskrit: एकलव्य, éklavya), who aspires to study archery in the gurukul (school) of Dronacharya.
After being rejected by Drona on account of his not being of Kshatriya lineage, Eklavya embarks upon a program of self-study in the presence of a clay image of Drona. And after rigorous practice, he achieved a level of skill superior to that of Arjuna, Drona’s favorite and most accomplished pupil.
In this 21st century India, the scene has not changed much, and we, startups and aspiring entrepreneurs, look for the Dronas,who can guide us through the roller-coaster ride in search of a scalable and repeatable business model, which can eventually minimize the immense infant entrepreneur mortality prevalent in the startup ecosystem.
(PS: Ekalavvya is launched with the sole purpose of providing a virtual platform to all the new-age Ekalavvyas)
A few of us might have been successful in getting some good and constant mentoring, but a huge chunk is still bereft of something like what you guys are doing in the US.
Though the instruction for innovators worldwide is inadequate, according to Global Entrepreneurship report , but there are some great initiatives on the part of serial entrepreneurs who have taken up the educator baton to teach entrepreneurship .
In our country, there should be more and more activities to encourage and support entrepreneurship and to catalyze, scale up and enrich the ecosystem. Such entrepreneurial studies from the stalwarts (instructors having substantial entrepreneurial experience) are truly lacking in India.
Let’s have a look at Innovation Corps education program:
Can’t we have in India workshops for instructors running such programs or institutions develop such programs for their own campuses?
Stratups India Needs Innovation Corps . Let’s have programs to educate the aspiring entrepreneurs.
Is there anybody listening….??
