Persistence and Resilience : What makes an Indian Dreamer Stand Out
Persist : to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning
Resilience : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
As always, last week we were having a fuzool[wasteful] discussion about things to do, sitting in a friends balcony far away from hyderabad.. as usual, we were out smarting each other on which things would work and which wouldnt... u know how we normally used to do it in the US... his better half chimed in.. what you guys lack is the "Resilience and the Persistence" that Indian dreamers have. They are willing to take it on the chin and try it again and again and again.. we have always given up too easily.... She was right, the past few weeks have shown me the clear difference between a Non Resilient Indian ( NRI) and an Indian Dreamer / Doer.
Call it laziness or trepidation, I got too hooked into the prescribed Rat race that we learn to run in the US. Just as the credit card companies wanted, I learned to be happy with a fat paycheck, house, cars, bonus, 401K's, mutual funds, tax savings.. and all the BS that never get you where you want to be. As I look back.. I see how easily a bunch of us gave up on a few great opportunities we had in hand, including websites, consulting business as well as training business. The same opportunity if provided to an Indian dreamer would have been a multi million dollar enterprise now.
This week I had a chance to meet a partner of a Private Equity firm and he referred to the untapped potential of india and how PE funds are actively circling india with millions of dollars to fund and bring out the best from any corner of India. He was talking about how the future is all in the Indian SME's [ Small to mid size enterprises .. referred to as sme's in india ] which are similar to the proverbial garage in silicon valley.
His take was that Technology was already overvalued in India and that they are primarily focussing on Healthcare, Manufacturing and Retail Supply Chain that would take India to the next level in the global economy. Some stories he mentioned about the work coming out of 1 and 2 bed room apt's in Hyderabad, Bangalore and some unknown remote towns were amazing, the heroes were high school drop outs and particularly PHD's that still kept tutoring in the evenings to make their ends meet. Angels and PE's are now coming along and providing these folks the labs and money to make a comfortable living. Of course, his firm has a financial interest in it, but atleast the Indian Dreams are getting a chance to see the light of the day...
Now when I think back about the Dog Grooming Service in Jim Carrey's Dumb and Dumber, may be it was not a bad idea after all ..