Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

If your lemonade does not sell, would you switch to selling Viagra? Even more if you are passionate about making a lemonade.

Entrepreneurship is about innovation and the ability to tackle problems. Doing both means you have a successful venture. Redbus.in is a classic Indian example of a startup that tackled challenges through innovation. RedBus (redbus.in) is now India's biggest online bus ticketing company. Interstate bus travel in India was a highly unorganized sector with many private local players and government buses. A consequence of this was the selling of bus tickets through traditional brick-and-mortar agents. Another problem with bus travel was immediate booking of tickets before journey. There used to be few advance bookings. Travelling to remote corners or on an immediate basis through bus remained a cumbersome task. Moreover there was no guarantee that if you went to a bus stand, you would find a bus.

Can a university degree guarantee financial security? A re-look at the correlation between financial security and education. A recent popular article at The Economist prompted me to write this entry. The article bluntly says "A university degree no longer guarantees financial security". It gives the following two arguments: 1. Improvements in technology and the evolution of computers have reduced the demand in mid-level jobs 2. Jobs in medicine, law, academia that earlier guaranteed a secure future no longer continue to do so. Their point of view is correct to a certain extent. My opinion of the current educated class is no different from the popular view - "They are following a herd". And this herd is slowly being destroyed through a simple demand-supply mismatch. When the herd gets more than what is required many have to be culled or left behind. Recession and the dip following it have fomented this reduction of requirement. With growth in number of univ...

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.~ Martin Luther King, Jr. We often tread on a path of uncertainty. Uncertainty has a tendency to move towards adversity. It happens since we tie a lot of resources, time and money on that path. This adversity leads to greater courage. If the Britishers or Soviets had not kept faith Hitler would have been a victorious in the second world war. All successful innovations had innovators who kept faith in their judgement. After all adversity makes us stronger. Entrepreneurship is another such challenging way of life. Uncertainty is in the DNA of entrepreneurship. All successful entrepreneurs (with Steve Jobs being the role model ) just learned to deal with uncertainty. They simply kept faith.

In my last post, I said that only competent people can afford to be arrogant. So what if your arrogance gives the other person a feeler of your competence. Getting a bigger client for a smaller business would mean matching the level of arrogance displayed by the client. This is what I call pro-arrogance. You arrogance is directed in the same direction as your client's arrogance. This makes you birds of the same feather. And they usually end up flocking together. Prospect to a confirmed sale may just mean matching the arrogance of your prospect. 

If you think all inventions, political campaigns, entrepreneurial ventures were successful because of a great idea, think again. Not all great ideas gain acceptability, and not all Barack Obama speeches are successful. Hitler was one of the few dictators in the second world war who had mass support during the initial phase. He lost it, and finally the war. The success of an idea does not lie in its greatness or its novelty. It becomes great because of a sound economic framework. An idea is like a variable, whose success depends on the mathematical equation where the success of the idea is a dependent variable, and the idea is one of the few independent variables.  Y- Success of the idea (Dependent variable) X1 - Idea X2 - Support from executors of the idea X3 - Support from the beneficiaries of the idea X4 - Processes governing the execution of the idea X5 - Social support for the idea X6 - Ability to generate monetary gains to support X2-X5 Y = f(X1,X2,X3,X4,X5,X6) Stil...

My friend started his own business of building online portals and platforms for SMEs. His enthusiasm and passion for business drives him to cut his sleeping time, eating time and most importantly party time. Although in all respects I can assure you that for him, work is like a party. It probably gives him a bigger high. I’ve seen him work on a startup since our third year of our graduation and ever since despite many hiccups his go getter spirit is still on and he is fighting it out. But… What happens when you meet another fighter ? A similar person who has been fighting it out for so many years and has seen the same ups and downs, gets a similar kick and is equally competent, if not more… And suddenly you see an army of such people who are competing, with equal passion, but … driven by different values.