The highs and lows of entrepreneurship

A person gets one life and no more, to do what he/she wants and achieve what one wills and aspires for, with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck.

Even a person born with the proverbial golden spoon in his/her mouth needs to personally accomplish something positive to come out of the father's shadow and be known for himself.

If the average life span can be taken as seventy plus then the average person has less than three scores of years to prove his mettle, or to put it in a better way, he has fifty long years to leave his footprint on the sands of time.

The size and type of the footprints depend on the intention of the individual. He may opt to leave an impact only in family circles, or a bigger arena to make an impact wherein he may choose a tougher path and turn into an entrepreneur, stepping into risky ventures, which may either fill or empty his cup.

The world has seen people turning successful entrepreneurs after turning well over 45, like KFC founder Harland (Colonel) Sanders. He made his fried chicken a legend, and later sold his stake in the company at the opportune time when it grew beyond his scope of management.

But he continued to be on its trail and after years of vicious volleys with the subsequent owners he was finally invited to join back and he died in harness, at the ripe age of 90, whilst remaining busy marketing his famed recipe. He lived and left behind a success story.

Some entrepreneurs taste success quite early in life. Now handling of success is a tricky affair. The elation should prod the new capitalist to tread cautiously rather than expand or diversify recklessly.

But many an entrepreneur has loved to ride high on the waves of success as if there is no tomorrow. The result has been expansion on impractical lines and diversification of businesses into unknown domains by partnering up with new entities.

Such entrepreneurs begin to see only acquisitions and expansion as the panacea for all ills of the current business.

They fail to see the real live people who are dependent on the very business for their daily bread, their very own employees, who are the worst hit when things go south.

The gullible public too get a nasty shock if they have invested in the shares of such an enterprise believing in its strong fundamentals and the brand name.

The entrepreneur is responsible to all such people and he cannot play either with his life or their lives by risking the businesses.

He should either know when to stop expansion, or the right juncture to sell the company when it begins to consume more fire than what he has within him.

Embracing murkier waters-pun unintended- becomes the easier solution at such times and there is no turning back. A lesson to be learnt from every such Satyam, Kingfisher or CC Day.