The Seeker
So, the kid is at school, a new phase of his life, away from home, away from all things familiar, away from family, away from friends, new friends to be made, a life ahead of him. A life for him to shape the way he wants it.
The instructions then, for Round Two were to judge the twenty six who made it through the elims out of the two hundred fifty odd who had initially applied. Not only were we to judge but also mentor and that’s a bit of a trick. Only twelve will make the grade this time, and move on to Round Three.
That was not to be, and instead, despite my considerable stints with considerable and financially sound national and international corporations, in seniormost roles, both in India and four continents, I would still continue to deal with businesses, with roles and assignments, that all had in some way, shape or form, “startup” as the central pivots of the roles that I played
60 million? Back in the day, and I’m talking some 17-20 years ago, that was a lot of money, and all I could think of is the fee based income that would follow suit. Would it? How? Well 1.5% as a Syndication Fee was a tidy bit of pocket money.
Having seen failure myself, and having seen others around me fail, its given me a deep perspective on what not to do, how not to do it, and when not to do it.
Statistically, the failure rate of Startups far exceeds the rate of success. Pity then that not much is really said of startups that fail, why they fail, how they fail. In their failure, complicit are the ones promoting the startups, the ones who fund them, the ones who value them, the ones who deal with them and the ones who run them.
