I learned a lot from one of my earlier managers, from my previous work place, Varun Pancholi when he was one of the managers for a major insurance company. He told me something during the last few days of my tenure then, which opened my eyes. I forget the exact conversation, but we were talking about cricket, and I asked him why players don’t typically do a self evaluation and why do they have cameras and stuff helping them out. What he said was that “THe worse evaluator of talent is a player trying to evaluate himself.”
The same applies to business people and particularly to entrepreneurs and wana be entrepreneurs. We tend to be less than honest with ourselves about our strengths and weaknesses.
I have been just as bad at this as anyone, particularly when I was getting started in the business world. For those of us who dream of starting and running a business, we know that we have to have a level of confidence in our own abilities. We don’t want to believe that there are things we can’t do. We want to believe that if we try hard enough, work long enough, and get a little lucky, that the sky is the limit. The problem is that we let our confidence cloud our judgments of what we truly know about ourselves.
I’m one of the least organized people I know. When I was 20 years old, sleeping on the desk and starting Sabretooth Studios, no assistant and no organization. I was a procrastinator. Accounting was an old floppy case of receipts. I was a mess.
But I lied to myself and said that I could deal with it. That I would make time to get it all figured out and organized. That if I only set my mind to it, I could be a detail person. I could stop procrastinating. It doesn’t work that way.
I did the things I was good at. I could sell. I could ideate, so I did, I could design, so I did. I could integrate PCs. I could set up systems from scratch. And I did. My business grew. But it also grew out of control. Setting up a machine or a software program or a design without any clear path ahead is a disaster waiting to happen. And they did. Not to the point where it killed my business, but to the point where I spent far too much time fixing things rather than selling new deals.
Fortunately, one of my best customers at the time was interested in becoming a partner in my business. Suhail ran a company called Intellimedia Technologies. I had worked there earlier, much before my Sabretooth days. He was not only smart and a great designer, but he was the most anal, detail oriented person I had ever met in my life. The perfect partner for me.
Our partnership wasn’t always easy. We had more than our shares of knock down drag out fights. He of course would want everything done with precision and if lack of perfection was an option, he didn’t want to do it. I of course was the exact opposite. I was the GO FOR IT guy. We were perfect partners. We knew and trusted the skills of the other and although many might not think yelling was the best way to work things out, we managed.
It all came down to choice. I had the choice between lying to myself and pretending that I could turn on a switch and become a details person, or accepting the fact that I’m not, and partnering with someone who is. Continuing to lie meant I would probably lose my business.
Of course, 2 years later, I sold off the business and got into a corporate career and so on. But the lesson I’ve learnt is this: Every entrepreneur faces comparable choices. Each of us has to face the reality of who we are and what we are.
What choice will you make?
Yes I agree “Each of us has to face the reality of who we are and what we are”.
If our dreams demand something else from us which we are not then we have to make a choice, either to change or to continue with what we are.
That’s why the line exists ” change or perish”.
“Change is the only constant”………So, to achieve big we need to dream big and start from the scratch. The result doesn’t matter, at least we would have the satisfaction of making an attempt to achieve our dreams.
Yeah Each of us has to face the reality of who we are and what we are. Every day is an exam in our life,it doesn’t matter whether we succeed or fail…………… But it would undeniably help us introspect ourselves and know where we stand……… How far is it to achieve our dreams.
“THe worse evaluator of talent is a player trying to evaluate himself”
Very aptly put. However, der can be 2 interpretations to it..one, like u said, we tend to turn a blind eye to our drawbacks n shortcomings which tends to give a rosy-picture.
however ders a second group of poeple who are overly critical about themselves…while to an extend its gud, beyond a point its like pulling urself down.
Wats required is a realistic view of things and takin a call according to that.