We rise by lifting others
DO respond to the emails from other entrepreneurs
Every week, I write an article to share my learning or discovery during my startup journey. Here is the link to my reasons for penning these articles for myself and many others like me.
These days, we can find so many shows on TV for the startup ecosystem, where the startups pitch their ideas to get the requisite funding. I was watching one such program where school children were working on some ideas and were pitching for investors’ money. The investment amount was small, the investors were vetting the idea by asking some good questions. Besides the money, the kids would also get mentorship from these investors.
This looks to be a good initiative, our society is now changing its mindset from getting a good job with a handsome salary to getting into startups and creating jobs.
I still face a lot of skepticism in my social circle regarding my entrepreneurship status. Talking about the operational challenges — I still cannot get credit cards or loans easily as I do not have a steady income to show. Talking about societal challenges — Still, in most of the family gatherings, everyone talks mainly about who is getting the highest salary and what freebies they are getting in their organizations. I feel more such startup TV shows should be shown, where the school kids are exposed to the entrepreneurship world. This would help the parents in showering their kids (and eventually the entrepreneurs) with more love and respect.
However, it is not just society that is hostile towards us. I have not seen fellow entrepreneurs supporting each other’ too. I feel many of them do not respond to the introductory emails from their counterparts. When I was doing customer interviews, I sent around 30 emails to entrepreneurs through LinkedIn connection requests. Only a few of them responded. Some mentioned they could not do the 30 min customer interview with me due to their busy schedule. Two people agreed and I feel I am forever indebted to those kind souls. Both mentioned that they had been supported in their initial startup phase and wanted to pay back the favor.
I resonated with their thoughts that we should support each other. It will make our entrepreneurship journey more enjoyable and enlightening. But instead, I see a sense of competition among us, even if we happen to be working in different industries.
Why do we become so closed as entrepreneurs? Already this society and sometimes our family is not providing us the requisite support. In this situation, if we can help each other in our startup journey, it might lessen some friction on this rough startup road.
I feel that we are waiting for another person to help us first, or they should seem to be useful to us, only then do we feel like responding to that person. We are already getting so much advice on how to write follow-up emails, how to develop a sales pitch etc. on social media. I want to add one small piece of advice to my fellow entrepreneurs — “DO respond to the emails from other Entrepreneurs”. Even if you could not fulfill their request for a meeting, a short response of yes or no will not take too much of your time. I assume that your entrepreneurial skills can help you find the difference between a sales pitch and a genuine request from other entrepreneurs.
I started this article with TV shows for investors, I wish to see a show where entrepreneurs can seek and receive help from other entrepreneurs for idea validation, content generation, customer interviews, and whatnot. The person who gets the help gives it back to another person. But all this needs to be self-driven. Otherwise, it will become like other startup groups or networking chapters that are already in abundance. I am hopeful to see the society opening to the entrepreneurs and to see entrepreneurs’ helping each other as well.
Have a great week and hope you give/get support to/from at least one person this week!
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