Be it in my job or when I visited some B-Schools for promoting entrepreneurship through NEN or be it on a cup of coffee with some college friends or co-workers of ex-employers or be it in the famous Adda of Kolkata. I have seen some really weird reasons for not trying to be an entrepreneur by Bengali’s and so let me share the top excuses.
1. I have a loan
If you talk to a person who is employed for 3 to 4 years in Kolkata means he has a loan. The first priority of a Bengali after passing out is to get a job and once he has a job it is Badi (house or flat these day) and Gadi (Car). So everybody I have met with that is under 5 years of experience has either home loan or a personal loan or an auto loan.
Loan is a social trap because if your friend books a new flat, you tend to be doing the same as well. Same thing goes for the car as well and if you are moved by these social trap so early in your career, you will have tough time as an entrepreneur. Once you have a loan I know it is difficult to be an entrepreneur but then is having a loan a reason not be an entrepreneur or it is just an excuse.
I found it to be just an excuse because many of them had loan amount that they could pay of in a year or two but till date they have the loan either the same one or may be in different form like they have paid off the home loan and now have an auto loan or they have paid the old auto loan and now have a new auto loan for the new car they just purchased. If they serious about entrepreneurship, they would have avoided the loan to the extent they could.
So it is more of an excuse.
2. I have a very stable Job
It could be that I worked in company where people had a stable job or it is that my friends are all very well settled in jobs. Some of them are still working in the same company and it may not be a decade working in the same company which suggest it is quite stable job they are doing.
But if you look at the career graph of any employee, it is bound to get into a stable job after say 2 or 3 switches. Normally people don’t change companies, they change managers and so in few years, you are bound to be into a stable job.
Is it an excuse or just yet another reason. I think there is a hidden meaning of stable job which is an excuse. It is “I am scared of failure”. If I do it and if it does not work the way I want it to be and if I had to get to a job, I don’t want to be wasting another 4 years to get another stable job.
Now if you are with the same person some other time, he may be complaining about the politics he is facing in the job. So actually it is fear of failure that is an excuse.
3. Business needs capital and I don’t have one
Wow. Looks so true.
So if you follow up with the next question like what kind of business are you talking about and what kind of capital do you need?
The answer will shock you which is every business.
So then I have shared how you can start an online business without investing a single penny and they say they don’t want to be doing those.
Yet another excuse because if you would have considered some business your answer would have been something different from every business.
4. Bengali’s don’t have it in their DNA
Being from Gujarat, I get this as an answer quite often or some variation of this answer and I have a very unique answer to this because actually it is much easier for a Bengali to do a business than a Marwadi or Gujarati.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I remember this was asked in a discussion panel in one of the B-School and so I asked the person what kind of salary do you expect after he passes out of this college.
He says in range of 30k to 40k per month. So that is under 500,000 per year.
So I asked him if he has to take up entrepreneurship, he will have to make anything above 500,000 per year to convince his family.
He agreed.
I asked him that for a Marwadi or Gujarati, if the person joins the family business he could easily make double or triple of what you would are expecting in your job. So yours is an expectation and for him it is guaranteed. So now what you think will be more difficult; Convince Bengali family or Marwadi and Gujarati?
So actually it is nothing to do with DNA or anything but it is all in the mind.
5. The environment is not suitable for business
My friends are more related to technology sector and so if I ask them, is the environment suitable for a job?
The answer is always hmmm.
Every body knows that job market is getting tougher and tougher. Once you move higher in an organization, you have more chances of being sacked because your output may not be increasing at the rate you expect your salary to. So you may be offered a position that you may not like to be working on and there is very little you can do anything about it anyway.
So if you expect someone will serve you in a silver platter an opportunity of a lifetime to be an entrepreneur, you are asking for too much.
Conclusion
There can be 100 reasons but not a single excuse. Humans by nature are full of excuses and excuses for entrepreneurship is everywhere. See it in the article here at entrepreneur.com.
Do you agree or have I missed anything? Share them in comments below.