After dabbling with the idea of writing a book for a while, around 2 years back, I decided to write my first book. The subject was Startups & Entrepreneurship. But somewhere inside I knew that it was not a great idea to write a book on startups as I didn’t have decades of experience in running them. This thought kept hitting me hard in the face. I kept fighting until I could. But finally, it managed to knock me down – obviously, in more ways than one.
Nobody reads a book on startups written by a nobody but…
I have launched three startups so far. And all are doing well. But does someone else care about it? Well, may be not. None of these companies are anywhere close to the Googles & Apples of the world. So, the question always was, “Will people read my book?” That’s because we like to read books by super-successful entrepreneurs only. But most of these entrepreneurs write books only in the last leg of their career. That’s what made me feel that I might as well share my thoughts on subjects like startups, entrepreneurship, failure & management, in a phase when my struggle in the startup world is still on… every single day.
Smart people make smart choices but…
I was dumb, and didn’t know why some books would further complicate my already complicated understanding of startups, business & entrepreneurship. Well, there are some smart people around us. And for them, the smart choice is to by a book written by a renowned author. And try to learn from those who are no longer in their shoes. But there are also smarter people around. And they understand the importance of being in a similar situation. They understand that if an author is in the same battlefield as them, he must be facing same issues as well. It is this smarter lot that made me realize that documenting some key learning from my battles could be of help. And it’s because of them I decided to document my stuff, from the same battlefield as theirs.
Entrepreneur wearing an Author’s hat, and the other way around but…
Though I’ve done a lot of writing earlier in my career, since 2010, I’ve been an entrepreneur first. And having spent enough time wearing both the hats independently, I have mastered the art of switching quickly. So, I’m a writer when required, and an entrepreneur at other times. However, while writing this book I didn’t know which hat would suit best. Should I wear an Author’s hat to make stuff interesting, or an entrepreneur’s hat to share some crude realities? Well, I decided to wear an entrepreneur’s hat. But I made sure that my pen is that of a Writer.
So, these are some key thoughts that ran through my head when I thought of writing a book on startups. But before I came across a solution for these questions, I stayed down for a while; down in the dumps. And that’s where I witnessed a lot of things happening around me. It was a great place to connect with my inner-self. Few days later, I said to myself, “It could be the worst idea to write a book on startups. But when I didn’t fear the idea of launching a startup, 3 in fact, then why should I fear documenting my experience?”
About The Author:
Rajive Dhavan is a serial entrepreneur, and the author of the book STFU – Start The F Up, for present & future leaders of startups. He’s got a collective work experience of over 10 years. Having launched his first startup at the age of 22, today he heads three successful companies – What’s In a Name Creatives, Namesake Productions & Just Flaunt Salon. He launched his first startup with an investment of Rs. 40,000 and (Read More…)
