Posts tagged on the open road

Why I visit the beach village of Palolem in Goa every year!

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Image Credit: Harshal Khanwilkar

Featured as ‘Blog of the Week’ by Goa Tourism Department.

Most of us might have been to Goa before. If you still have not, all I got to say is pack your bags and leave for one of the most enthralling destinations not only in India but across the world. Goa offers a memorable experience of culture, food, travel, indulgence, adventure sports, nightlife, music, festivals and art. Everyone, at least in India, plans to visit Goa sometime in their lives and if you are just about to make a decision, you are definitely at the right place.

The travel season in Goa touches its peak in December on account of a pleasant weather like it goes for every tropical destination. The “Christmas”, “Sunburn” and “Carnival” are the best reasons to enjoy the festivity around in this season! The flip side is that Goa is extremely expensive and crowded during this time. If you are not that hip and party person and enjoy lying by the beach peacefully instead, you can plan a budget travel to Goa in February. An added advantage for the couples is in the form of Valentines’ Day. South Goa is the best place to be with its budget shacks and coco huts as against North Goa that offers more of clubbing & casinos. Palolem Beach, in the district of Canacona, is one of the best South Goa beaches. You could choose from a range of luxury to budget coco huts cum shack arrangement that is available by the beach for a delightful stay. The best part is that you could anytime put your beachwear on and move towards the inviting ocean, all on your feet. There’s a small jungle by the side of the beach which is echoed by the chirping of birds in the morning, a suitable place for trekking on your own. Running by the side of the beach with the jungle on the other side in the morning could fill you with all the energy and revitalize your senses. You could also enjoy the boat ride on your own or ask the local fishermen who reside there to take you to nearby beaches or into the jungle via the serene back waters. If you want to get the feel of staying in a marooned island for a while ask him to take you to the nearby honeymoon beach. You might just get lucky and spot a couple of dolphins in the sea water playing and indulging among themselves! If you are a social person, you can find travelers and backpackers from around the world who are willing to share their tales of travel over a mug of beer!

During evening, the entire seashore is lighted up with beautiful candles that are tactfully placed on the tables that are arranged right on the beach in front of the Arabian Sea horizon. You could savor a glass of wine with the delicious food served in the shacks as they offer a multi-cuisine menu to choose from, while listening to your favorite Beatles or Pink Floyd number playing in the background. Book a table to get transfixed with the ambience and feel blessed while you witness a mesmerizing sunset. This is just a glimpse of a day that can be spent at Palolem but exploring more to land upon new avenues of a perfect holiday is the key to get more out of this untouched beach village. Palolem is a place to explore and worth spending at least 3 days full of relaxation, rejuvenation, adventure and indulgence.

How to build a startup culture in a mature organization?

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Startups, like humans, have DNA that defines its being – innovative, disruptive, risk-taking and fast-paced. They’re also cool, collaborative and impactful. As of 2016, India boasts of the entrepreneurial culture with about 2 million startups. Startups are in the newspapers, cafes and coworking spaces. They’re even on the billboards that stand straight on the traffic signals that lead to your office. A recent Accenture survey reported that

only 15% of the class of 2014 said that they’d prefer to work for a mature, established organization.

As an owner of a mature organization, no matter how strongly you believe in your processes and teams, what raises an alarm for you is –

  1. Hiring and Retaining the Best of Talent
  2. Fostering Rapid Fire Innovation

What do you do?

Calm down. Relax. Here’s a simple step-by-step action plan that has helped several mature organizations in the past and will come to your rescue too.

Empower Intrapreneurs

Intrapreneurship! Yeah, you’ve heard about it a couple of times, but, what is that? When your employees become entrepreneurs, they are called intrapreneurs. The average age for startup founders is 40. So, intrapreneurship isn’t for the new recruits only, it’s for the middle-managers too.

Great ideas can come from anyone, ok!

Empower your employees to come up with new ideas. Celebrate failures as much as the successes. Google encourages its employees to spend 20% of their time on new projects. This presents the employees with a new opportunity within the same organization and cultivates the drive for innovation. Ownership of ideas – yes you’ve got it right! The moment we start to own our ideas, we feel empowered already.

Workplace Matters

When you’d have asked your wife to marry you, it would’ve probably been at a fine dining restaurant. Similarly, for your employees to innovate, they must find themselves in a high energy environment. Building an office that has an open setup, no cabins, some Steve Jobs’ posters, a cafeteria, an incubator, in short everything that can let one’s creative juices flow and provide a conducive space for brainstorming.

If you don’t want to invest in the old office, consider moving to a coworking space.

It will also help your employees to network with the startup people.

Leadership Goals

A team is as motivated as its leader is! Not just the CEO; motivation, energy and an appetite for risk must run from top-to-bottom and soak everything that comes on its way.

Can we make everyone feel that they’re a part of the idea, the impact that they’re making?

Of course, we can! Rewrite those mission statements to make them more contemporary, upgrade the reward system and consider ESOPs to make them feel as if it were their own company. It truly does magic!

Openness

Open culture isn’t really about sharing beers with the co-founders, it’s more about being able to share everything without a drop of it!

Yes, we’re talking about having an open-door policy. A flat hierarchy fosters innovation through early feedbacks and failing fast. Listen before you speak, listen to their failures as much as their achievements.

But, Technology First!

In the times of Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, deep learning and advanced robotics; what you can’t certainly miss out on is technology.

The fifth industrial revolution is all about – do or die.

While innovative business models are ruling the market, it’s time that every company appreciates the power of innovation and disruption. MNCs are being wiped out overnight due to the lack of it. Invest in relevant technologies to reap benefits in the long run.

The core capabilities of a mature organization give it a competitive advantage, that added with the learnings from the startups can help mature organizations to cut from the clutter and stay ahead in the times of Uber and Airbnb.

Common Challenges Faced By Most Successful Entrepreneurs

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Entrepreneurship presents you with various challenges from the very moment you decide to take the plunge. But, isn’t challenges the thrill of an entrepreneurial life? As a kid, most of you would have played video games. Would there be any thrill, if there were no villains or obstacles? Certainly not. Similarly, the journey to becoming a successful entrepreneur is a challenging one as well.

Here are some hacks for you to nail it!

Self vs. Product Validation

It is a good idea to seek everyone’s opinion, however not at the cost of questioning your core values. Listen to the criticism carefully, however, do not let anyone validate your own values.   

Overcoming Self-doubt

A few days into the business, and you would start to occasionally look back on your big fat pay cheque corporate life. You would question your choices on the days a few setbacks would knock on your door. Negative thoughts like, ‘Maybe! This is not for me!’ and ‘Maybe. I’m not the one,’ will start to surround you. You need to kick it out with, ‘Yes, I can!’ and ‘Yes, I am the one.’

Keeping At It

The definition of success varies from person to person. But, if you are an entrepreneur, measuring success from an internal frame of reference will help you keep the external distractions at bay, and concentrate your efforts on what matters the most – your company! Celebrate small successes and wins with your team. Your vision could possibly take 7-8 years to come to life but that doesn’t mean that you can’t celebrate. Hustling will become the status quo and you need to welcome this lifestyle with open arms.

The Wrong Circle

During the early days, it is imperative to find your circle of people, who can guide you through, ably. They are the ones who will encourage you when you start to look back and reflect too often. Network, and meet a couple of fellow entrepreneurs who will add to your enthusiasm and energy.

Staying Motivated

Read good books. Take a brisk walk in the morning. Engage in some sports during the weekends. Call back home. Practice mindful minutes and yoga for your mind. Do everything under the sun to keep yourself motivated. If you feel good, you energize your team with a good amount of positive energy.

Once you are done with the internal challenges, it’s time to face the world. The good news is that by this time you have become a stronger version of you.

Originally Published On: https://iamanentrepreneur.in/startup-business-trends/challenges-successful-entrepreneurs/

How to Overcome Odds and Persevere to Establish Your Business

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The more you fail, the more techniques you’d know to rise up again, and return stronger

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Odds would become the order of the day when you start your business. Unruly life, unlikely outcomes and unknown obstacles make the milestones on the long road to success. While most odds would be external, the others would be internal. Internal odds are easier to overcome than the external ones. If you’re prepared as a warrior from the inside, it would be easier to combat the outer world. Wouldn’t it?

Always remember, in Martin Luther King’s words, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” That’s the simple mantra you need to abide by as an entrepreneur when it comes to keeping at your inner calling.

Be aware

Awareness is the first step to success. As an entrepreneur, you must be aware of the unruly life and know that the challenges are the norm. Being mentally aware would then bridge the expectation-reality gap and you’d be ready to take up the hustle.

Self-belief is that weapon from your arsenal which would empower you to win the battle with the external odds. Most of the entrepreneurs believe that they’re subjected with criticism and opinions only until idea validation stage. Then they realize that no matter where the company is, they might have to deal with beliefs contradictory to their own, and convince the world about the vision they believe in. However, to be so focused and headstrong, you must have a very strong belief in your potential and your goals. This self-belief must be constant and unwavering much after the 1000th day too.

Keep learning  

Learning is a constant loop, it never ends. Learn from the mistakes made in the past to build the future than crib about clients who would not pay or partners who would not stand by when need be. You’ve had your tragedies, so have the others. Anytime you feel bogged down, pat yourself on the back, get up, learn and move on. Where? Forward. Period.  

Fail to rise

Success tastes the sweetest after a series of failures, and remember, every success is preceded by failure. As a child, you’d fall a thousand times before you would confidently walk on your feet someday. Similarly, don’t be afraid to fail. The more you fail, the more techniques you’d know to rise up again, and return stronger.  

Focus on where you’ve to reach. Also, never forget where you’ve come from. Celebrate success, however small, with your team. When your focus is at the right place, your dream and the action plan to achieve it, all the obstacles and circumstances become irrelevant. 

Invest your time with someone that you look up to as your mentor. It could be your investor or simply a teacher. During the entrepreneurial days, good and bad, you’d be able to reach out to them without hesitation, and you would not feel alone after all. Also, believing that someone can guide you better than you can guide yourself keeps you grounded and never lets your ego take too much control of you.  

How about the external odds, you might think?

External circumstance would never really be under your control so why not make the most of your inner strength and persevere to establish your business?

Originally Published On: www.entrepreneur.com/article/326638