By: B. K. Vijay
Imagine facing Dale Steyn bowling at his best in a cricket match – deliveries on to your body at a speed of 140-150 km/hr. Scary, isn’t it? You can’t face him unless you’re an international cricketer with lot of experience. Without a doubt, you will get injured if you face his bowling with your ‘galli cricket’ experience. I’m sure you will never again hold a bat, you will be afraid of cricket.
This is what many of our young graduates are doing. They are trying to become entrepreneurs while they actually are not capable of getting selected in a job. In cricketing parlance, not able to play galli cricket, going to face Dale Steyn.
My intention here is not to discourage you from becoming an entrepreneur. I don’t want you to face Dale Steyn without preparation and hurt yourself. I don’t want you to fail badly in your entrepreneurship endeavour. Instead learn the game, do some net practice, start playing small tournaments, and then think of planning to face Steyn.
Nothing wrong in entrepreneurship
There is nothing wrong in becoming an entrepreneur. But the issue today is many fresh graduates, who just finished their degree and those who couldn’t find jobs are trying to become entrepreneurs. You may be inspired by people like Bill Gates, Narayana Murthy, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. It’s good. But remember, you will get to know only the success stories. In reality for every success story, there are dozens of failure stories that never make into the news.
Also, don’t get carried away by your friends from business families. They are trained for decades in their family business.
Don’t become an entrepreneur, just because you didn’t get a job
If your aim in life is to start a business on your own, it’s fine, there is nothing wrong. But if you choose to become an entrepreneur just because you didn’t get a job, it’s nothing but your foolishness.
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What exactly is entrepreneurship?
“Entrepreneurship is the professional application of knowledge, skills and competencies and/or of monetizing a new idea, by an individual or a set of people by launching an enterprise.”
But for many jobless graduates in India it is often a scheme of self-employment and a way to be independent to make more money.
Not getting job = Lack of skills and knowledge
Not getting a job after attending many interviews clearly shows that you don’t possess the minimum abilities to get a job. Then how can you treat yourself as an entrepreneur. As mentioned earlier, knowledge, skill and competency are the basic requirements to become an entrepreneur.
Let’s be frank, if you have all those you would have got a job long back. Isn’t it? Now that you are still jobless, it clearly shows where you stand. So, don’t make a foolish choice of becoming an entrepreneur. If you do so you are simply wasting the hard-earned savings of your parents or taking unnecessary risk by borrowing money from friends/relatives.
Starting a business is not easy
Becoming an entrepreneur is not as easy as it sounds nor as fancy as it looks. It demands a lot of hard work, extended work hours, multi-tasking, people management skills, innovation, creativity, determination, commitment and lot more. If you have had at least a few of these, you would have got a job long back.
Tips to make yourself employable
Hope you understand the importance of getting a job before becoming an entrepreneur. Here are a few tips that could help you become employable:
- Self-evaluation – With all your interview experiences, try to evaluate yourself. Where exactly you are going wrong, what is missing in you, etc. With this you will get a list of areas of improvement. Using this try to pursue the things you are bad at and give one more try.
- Pick up small jobs – Don’t feel offended to do small jobs. You can even join as a cashier/ server in companies like KFC, McDonald’s, etc. It helps you learn how to work, how processes are built, how companies operate, etc. This exposure will help you greatly in your entrepreneurial journey.
- Give tuitions – It may sound like an old idea. But it really works. By giving tuitions, you not only help the students, but also revisit the subjects.
Then why waiting, go get a job. Don’t worry about the job profile – after all you are on your way to become a successful entrepreneur.