The opportunities to take on new ventures happen to anyone
who is open to evaluate and identify the potential to grow the idea. School
projects, ideas and needs in and around the neighborhood, voices and concerns of consumers and customers, people in news are just some of the sources
for opportunities. An entrepreneurial
mind assesses the benefits and risks carefully and takes the first step to
progress with what he/ she believes it as an opportunity.
Opportunity analysis, business plan development and implementation
keep the process going. The progress with the initial phases starts to demand
more resources from the individuals involved. It is during this time that the
doubts arise about seeing through the process towards the finish line. However,
the finish line is really not an end of the project. It is just the beginning
of the next step. Addressing the issues that gave rise to the doubts is key to
progress with enthusiasm. Friends and family, collaborative teams play a
crucial role in keeping the rhythm of the process to progress.
I like to treat a business venture (or for that matter any
project) as a science experiment. Study, method, discipline and documentation
go a long way to give the necessary support for any venture to progress. While
it appears to take time on the onset, the preparation culture brings about a
maturity to handle tough problems, and take up unforeseen challenges more
naturally. No project or problem will appear chaotic to the disciplined
individual.
Google experienced an astounding growth in the very first
year that Larry Page and Sergey Brin joined hands to work on the search engine
they teamed up at School. This story may be unique to talk about, but the opportunity
for a search engine to grow at the rate Google did is filling a need at that
time – with the assets on the Internet waiting to be found.
Consider the Yelp app. I am not bringing up Yelp to compare it
with Google. Yelp is a specialized service in the search arena. Yelp is a handy
app on your mobile phone, to use it for a very specific purpose. You just
search for a restaurant at the middle of a new city you are touring around. You
get the restaurant list beckoning you to pick your choice and have a good
evening.
A search engine like Google is working in the background for Yelp. You get the point – don’t mix up the timings – Yelp is what you need today – but you can’t get to it without the Search engine in the background. Sometimes, one may be too way ahead of ideas to make them happen in reality. Hence, the study, method, analysis, people to support.
