Fearing the State of Not Climbing
There are quite a bit of people that I come across, good and very good people who sometimes have this fear of not being in the ladder. They are great with startups, but are afraid of being left behind in the startup world and constantly keep looking over the shoulder to move up to becoming a corporate and then join the old boys club of retired entrepreneurs.
i have almost come to believe that that is one of the primary reasons why once someone is fairly successful in this country as an entrepreneur, they run off to become a VC, and then become directors in a few companies and are never heard from again in the startup circles. Apparently they “graduate”. And this is somehow seen as the norm.
There is a certain thrill, passion, grit and energy in working with Startups. And if you do fall addicted to it, there is also more than enough means and ways to create wealth in this phase of creativity and corporate development.
But you are going to have to make a decision about staying put, sinking your heels deeper and committing to this space. As someone rightly said “My life never makes sense in the windshield. It only makes sense in the rear view”. Working with Entrepreneurs, working with Startups, and being an entrepreneur is also a lifestyle choice.








Anaka Narayanan Says:
April 15th, 2009 at 12:46
Well perhaps it’s not so much the fear of not climbing as the insecurity of not knowing whether or not your business will take off while your peers have a relatively less stressful life (plus a real salary!) Just a regular human thought to have, and those kind of thoughts always creep in when you are feeling low and when work is frustrating. But yes, the thrill is something else
Sridhar Turaga Says:
June 23rd, 2009 at 23:47
@sturaga
Absolutely true.
Part of the reason this happens is probably because … people don’t realise that (a) working for a start up put constraints one’s resources (financial etc.) even at a personal level … (b) it’s also has social pressures associated … being a VP at IBM is socially more acceptable than even a CXO at some unknown start up (c) it “HIGH-RISK-HIGH-RETURN” game … can’t avoid the risk part.