My style of managing business is quite simple and straight forward. I aim very high, and then just keep myself pushing and pushing and pushing hard to get what I want. Sometimes I settle for less than I sought, but in most cases I still end up with what I want.
Leverage: Don't make deals without it.
More than anything else, I think Entrepreneurship is an ability everyone is born with. It is in the genes. It is not about being brilliant. It does take a certain intelligence, but mostly it's about instincts. You can take the smartest student at IIM, the one who gets straight A's and has a 180 IQ, and if he doesn't have the instincts, he will never be a successful entrepreneur.
Most people who do have the instincts will never recognize that they do, because they don't have the courage or the good fortune to discover their potential. In this article I am going to share some of the certain common elements which I found in all of my success. But unlike the Entrepreneurship Evangelists you see and read all over these days, I can't promise you that by following the percepts I'm about to offer will make you a millionaire overnight. Life rarely works that way, and most people who try to get rich quick end up going broke instead.
For those among you who do have the genes, who do have the instincts and who could be highly successful, I hope you won't follow my advice. Because that would just make it a much tougher world for me.
Think Big
I like thinking Big. I always have. It's part of my unconscious thought process. To me it's very simple: IF YOU ARE GOING TO THINK ANYWAY, YOU CAN MIGHT AS WELL THINK BIG. Most people think small, because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decisions, afraid of winning. And that gives people like me a great advantage.
I am never satisfied with, 'just to earn a good living'. One of the key to thinking big is total focus. I think of it almost as a controlled neurosis, which is a quality I've noticed in many highly successful entrepreneurs. They are obsessive, they are driven, they are single minded and sometimes they are almost maniacal, but it's all channeled into their work. Where other people are paralyzed by neurosis, the people I'm talking about are actually helped by it.
I don't say this trait leads to a happier life, or a better life, but it's great when it comes to getting what you want. This is particularly true when you have to deal with some of the sharpest, toughest and most vicious people in the nation. I love to go up against these guys, and I love to beat them.
Protect the Downside and the Upside will take care of Itself
I have always believed in positive thinking but at the same time I also believe in negative thinking. I always negotiate anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst - if you can live with the worst – the good will take care of itself. A man can be sized up within a minute just by observing how he manages the downside, how he reacts to the adversities in life. And if he manages it skillfully, cheerfully and industriously then the favorable circumstances are bound to follow.
Maximize your Options
I always protect myself by being flexible. I never get too attached to one approach. I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most promises fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first. Once I have negotiated, I come with half dozen approaches to make it work, because anything can happen, even to the best laid plan.
Know your Market
Some people have the sense of the market and some do not. Entrepreneur should know what the public wants and he should exactly deliver that. I like to think I have that instinct and so I do not follow the advice of various number-crunchers. I believe in doing my own survey and drawing my own conclusions. I also have a habit of asking everyone for an opinion before I make a decision. It's a natural reflex.
Whenever I go to a new place and hire a taxi then I always make it a point to ask the taxi driver questions. I ask and ask and ask, until I begin to get a gut feeling about something. And that's when I make a decision. I always follow my own instincts, but I'm not going to kid you: it's also nice to get good reviews.
Use Your Leverage
For those who heard the word 'Leverage' for the first time; I would suggest you to read my previous post to get yourself familiar with this word and then proceed. The best thing you can do is deal with strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having something before your opponent wants.
Leverage: Don't make deals without it.
Enhance your Location
Here I would like to share the most crucial point relating to my favourite subject i.e. REAL ESTATE.
Perhaps the most misunderstood concept in all of Real Estate is that the key to success is location. Usually, that's said by people who don't know what they're talking about.
First of all, you don't necessarily need the best location. What you need is the best deal. Just as you can create, leverage, you can enhance a location through promotion and through psychology. Location has a lot to do with fashion. You can take a mediocre location and turn it into something considerably better just by attracting the right people.
My point is that the real money is not made in real estate by spending heavily to buy the best location. You can get killed doing that, just as you can get killed buying a bad location, even for a low price. What you should never do is pay too much, even if that means walking away from a very good site.
In order to enhance the location you need to generate interest, excitement. Hire some public relation people and pay adequately. Sometimes it may require playing to people's fantasies. A little hyperbole never hurts. It's an innocent form of exaggeration – and a very effective form of promotion.
But remember, you cannot con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on. Result always talks in the end.
Control over the Cost
I believe in spending what you have to. But I also believe in not spending more than you should. I too learned the lesson of being Cost Conscious very late. Every rupee counts. The point is that you can dream big dreams, but they will never amount to much if you can't turn them into reality at a reasonable cost.
One of the essential factor for cost control is strong focus. Even small jobs can get out of control if you're not attentive.
Have Fun
I don't kid myself. Life is very fragile, and success doesn't change that. Anything success does is, makes life more fragile. Anything can change without warning and that is why I try not to take any of what's happened too seriously. Money and Academic scores has never been a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what I should have done differently, or what is going to happen next.
So, leverage your present time to its highest limit and have fun.
Thank You.
Chandan Mundhra,
India
