Article - 40 Week 49 Entrepreneurship Despite All Odds:

Article - 40 Week 49

Entrepreneurship Despite All Odds:

"Son, study hard & if you make it to the tops, you will get a candy …. a toy … a pair of new shoes …. a watch … a bike … a good paying job…." -  Parents to child as he or she  grows

"Rote & reproduce .. There is nothing for you if you think outside the prescribed books…" - Our Schools

"Good salary… a renowned & MNC company to work with...Maersk Shipping …. Promotions … wow " - Friends, Peers, & Acquaintances

"Work long hours …. don't take holidays … round peg to a round hole & a square peg to a square hole … do what you are told to do … must sacrifice every thing in your life for the company …." - The Employer

"My cousin works for the MNC NBC Logistics and earns much more than you… That too with lesser qualification than you….buck up dear…" - Spouse or would-be-spouse

"If you have a job, we'll give you loans to buy a car, a house, a TV, and so on …. If you don't and want to start your own business, don't come to us … We lend money only to the already rich …..The richer they are, the more loan we give ... '' - The Banks 

"You are just plain helpless & hopeless folks … vote for us … will give you quota jobs …. Don't think of being an entrepreneur because you need licenses, permits, and pay bribes to our babus & even us … moreover money & connections are solely kept privileged to our kith & kin, or the MNCs like Dubai Ports, & Maersk Lines etc, or the Ambanis etc …You don't stand a chance …. You better be uptight & honest citizens away from the hassles & dangers of dirty money ... Our Taxation System is too efficient to exclude you - royally damned if you pay honestly and mollycoddled  if you don't ….. " - The Government Of India

That's a social conditioning we go through from the time we are born, almost like Pavlov's experimental dog. When repeatedly exposed to a ringing bell before being fed, the dog salivates upon hearing the bell - even when no food is in sight. The word 'job' is the Pavlovian bell for us. We are primed into thinking that the only way to live a fuller & contented life is to work for some one else. Jobs, jobs, and again jobs determine the quality of spouse you would get. Look at any matrimonial in today's Newspaper or shadi.com, you will get the answer. Interestingly, even the gender bias is taking a spin with this onslaught of job stuff - a modern day parlance for skilled slavery. The question is how can you just ignore this dolly when the whole world screams at you to get it as a prize. This dolly congeals into your subconscious and you just stop thinking otherwise or alternate ways of life. This hardening of our (job) belief system, precipitates no less powerful than our religious rigidities. 

The result is poverty of entrepreneurship in our society. And our society can never be highly productive and vibrant without entrepreneurs. It's not that we do not have entrepreneurs. We don't have them in sufficient numbers, especially among the educated mass. The illiterates and less-educated are better better off, though not completely immune to this Pavlovian Bell. At the same time, it is not that when we take up a job, we become less of an entrepreneur. It is just that when we take up a job that strips us of our creativity & independence, it kills the entrepreneur in us. Many organisations, with their almost fanatic interpretation of quality standards and a hubristic command & control system, and the HR that screams for round pegs for round holes, leave no room for independence of mind. 

It is also equally true that not all of us can become or need to become 360 degrees entrepreneurs. In a society, we too need people who are more gifted to do specific jobs with special precision & skills, be they mental or physical. We need a whole lot of such talents. However, that should not mean killing the budding entrepreneurs of our future. Entrepreneurship should not be an forced process due to economic (When there in no means of employment), dynastic, or any other extraneous force, as is the case in most circumstances. This needs to be a natural choice for people. Risk appetite, curiosity, experimentation with new ideas, and general disapproval for a compliant culture should be inculcated from family level, social level, & government's policy levels to the working chair. And that would unleash the great mind of the Indian.