Elemental Powers for Entrepreneurs

World is changing faster than ever.

Our lifestyle preferences are changing fast and so are our career choices. Gone are the days, the young talent is restricted to a fixed full-time employment. Whether it is government or private, organisations are finding it difficult to attract and retain the right talent.

There are two significant trends taking shape:

• There is a constant rise in the number of start-ups
• Number of talented professionals taking up freelance career is significantly improving

Startup owners and freelancers are entrepreneurs.

As per the estimates, there are close to 50 crore entrepreneurs in the world as of 2020.  As per The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, every year, 5 crores new start-ups emerge.

That is close to 1.37 lakh start-ups in a day. On the contrary, more than 1.2 lakh start-ups are closed every day. This number may have increased due to the pandemic.

All the above numbers exclude freelancers. As of 2020, over 120 crore professionals are working in freelance industry. This astounding number is expected to double by 2025. Here again, the success rates are vastly limited.

At this stage, it is natural to ask a basic question

• What’s wrong with these entrepreneurs?
• Why do such incompetent people even attempt to start on their own?

Absolutely No!  All of them are the brightest, committed, capable and curious species on our planet. Almost all of them are from the creamy layer of the talent pool ever available to us.

So the question is :

• Why do so many entrepreneurs  fail?
• What makes them successful? 
• What skills and talents do they need to master?

A leader is expected to have very clear vision, strategic thinking, flawless execution and so on. It’s a long list of essential qualities that a leader must possess.

To run a successful business or team, a leader is expected to have more than 100+ skills. 

Most leaders can even master all these 100+ skills individually in a short time. However, if he/she is not surrounded by talented and committed people, he/she can barely achieve anything worthy. Therefore, it is important to build a vibrant team and organisation. 

The most valuable companies on the planet have one thing in common: All of them have built great teams and a vibrant organisation culture.

1. Organization culture stems from character strengths
2. Character strengths come from elemental traits and foundational strengths  

Entrepreneurs need such elemental powers. Something similar to the five elements of universe. How do we get these elemental powers?

As per traditional Indian Vedic system , humans have three seminal qualities  called  Trigunas : Sattva, Rajasa, and Tamasa. Combination of these Trigunas result in several diverse personality types.

This is where English as a language fails us in expressing. There are no equivalent words for most of the rich words Sanskrit vocabulary brings. Let me attempt to describe these broadly

1. Sattva guna is all about clarity, purity, wisdom and harmony
2. Rajo guna is about passion, action , energy and so on
3. Tamas is about ego, aggression, laziness , destruction and so on

Let’s discard the third Guna for now.  A successful leader must maintain a fine balance of  Sattva and Rajo gunas.

How do we learn and practice Sattva guna? Spiritual path guides us on this completely.   Spiritual orientation empowers us with tons of virtues and values. We get boundless humility, empathy and compassion and 100+ more sparks.

With a spiritual orientation, we get a deeper disposition. Disposition positions us as a strong leader. 

Spirituality also guides on our action, execution and perseverance. Next up, we need to convert our perseverance into a strong Grit.

Spirituality and grit can give us all elemental powers of leadership.

Entrepreneurs face several Setbacks, Calamities,  adversities and Rigidities. In simple terms, they are scars. You see how our old Indian films depict a villain? He is characterised by scars. More starts mean a stronger villain. Similarly, these scars can teach very good lessons to leaders. Spirituality and Grit enable the leaders to get the strength and resilience to counter them and convert them as opportunities.

Our disposition fuels our strengths. Grit can effectively make use of our strengths to complete the mission.

As we get seasoned in this practice, we  get more resilient and anti resilient. We demonstrate  empathy, our listening skills improve, we can communicate better and grab 100+ skills .

Using our clear mind, we will be able to comprehend real problems, find comprehensive solutions , articulate them and generate interest. There are numerous benefits.

Do we need anything else? Yes, two more tools. Since we have thrive in this robotic world, we need to be good at Digital and Data.

• Data powers our decision making
• Disposition gives navigational power
• Grit gives us the required drive
• Digital moves the engine        

Sounds good but there are still many leaders who don’t take this path and yet very successful. Such organisations suffer a HIPPo syndrome. It’s always the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion that counts. That opinion is largely gut driven and autocratic and therefore has limited success chances.

Such  leaders tend to leave lot of money on the table and lose several opportunities. They are the ones who run their business in a suboptimal manner. When the leader is not grounded with spiritual sparks, that organisation suffers high attrition, employee disengagement , client dissatisfaction and so on.

So, when are you beginning your spiritual journey ? Want to know more about Spirituality ? Join us on NamamiGita