Challenge the Existing - Entrepreneurial Quotient (EQ)

The title of this blog is certainly borrowed from an interesting session we recently had in a leadership workshop @ KPMG and I personally feel highly connected to it not only in professional but personal life too.

Why I feel like writing on this today because in my last one year in the KM team, I have often come across statements like ‘This is how things have been in past’ or ‘We have been doing it like this’ or ‘you know It’s a big organization not a start-up for us to change so fast’

No I am not talking about any new a new initiative here J…. nor saying that things aren’t great. They certainly are awesome and I feel highly lucky and proud to be a part of this capability.

But my above small experience has got me present to one aspect and that is ‘What’s your Entrepreneurial Quotient in your day to day life?’

Let me clarify, the definition of entrepreneur to me is not someone who quits his job to start a cool venture and is not part of the regular crowd.

My weird definition of entrepreneurship is simply a spirit, an attitude, a way of thinking where you feel the need for a change and take a bold, positive take a step in that direction. And one could be an entrepreneur in any format of life be it personal or professional.

It’s like having the courage to go for something that you have been wanting to do for a while but have had hundreds of reason as to why it won’t work. Am 100% sure that there are many wishes deep inside the heart that you may have been wanting to do but at times shy away or have the fear of public comments.

It’s like

• Would you like to go home tonight or call your mom right now to say ‘I love you’ but feel awkward or shy…am sure you’d want to express but think inside when was the last time you said so or did something to make her feel special…OR
• Would you like to play that guitar, or do that dance, or sing without bothering an iota of what others would think...OR
• Would you like to walk up to your boss, your peer, your senior that there’s something you really admire or dislike of him/her or would like to a make a change in the organization but not gathering the courage because you consider your idea a trivial one…OR
• Would you like to take a break from the day to day mundane and do something not bothering about society, family and anyone would say

Am certainly not claiming to be one but am honestly aspiring to enhance my EQ everyday which I have certainly experienced in my personal and professional life many a times and by observing very carefully some entrepreneurs around me.

…and their journey is full of adventure, risks, learnings, failures, misunderstanding, mockery, criticism, some sweet endings, many bitter ones….but a sense of satisfaction at the end for sure.

Years back whenever I was consistently failing in MBA exams, my old school friend used to tell me one is lucky if he fails a lot in at the early stages in life, and pushed me to keep trying again n again….. and I used to think inside ‘kya gyan de raha hai’…but today I very strongly believe that it’s extremely important to fail in life and when I look back, my failure landed me to a hard core sales job which gave me the attitude that I would’ve never got in any B-school.

Success comes with experience, and a real ‘good’ experience comes from bad experiences and failures only

So, I’d request all of you to create one entrepreneurial moment in your life today that you heart has been pushing for a long while but the mind has been resisting.

…because to me, the EQ is one of the most important chip somewhere in the brain or heart that lets you live a life of choice and freedom.

…and I assure you that it’d leave you with a great sense of satisfaction and pride inside.

A person is an Entrepreneur by heart, not by a project, a venture, an idea, not success or failure….It’s a mindset at the end of the day :)

Vinkal