FRESHERPRENEURS

This is a story of a woman who grew up in the era of World War1 in Paris, introduced a new flutter of fashion and created her own legacy- COCO CHANEL. Chanel realized that women dress up to be liked and admired by men but their dressing styles were not comfortable enough, making it difficult for the women to even move. Chanel is the one to be credited for liberation of women from the restraint of “corseted silhouette” and prevailing the look of a sportive, casual chic as the feminine standard in the post world war 1 era.  She lost her parents at an early age and was born in poverty. It was her sewing skills+ plucky attitude+ innovation that led to her soaring success as a businesswoman and social prominence.

From a small village’s dusty lanes of Gujarat (India), rose one of the stars of corporate world. He had nothing to himself except for a firm determination and a business plan to serve the needs of people. He started his career as an entrepreneur by selling vegetable fritters (a.k.a Bhajias). Yes; we are talking of THE DHIRUBHAI AMBANI. He was one of the significant business tycoons of the 1900’s who gave a new definition and an improvised stature to the Indian corporate world. He contoured India’s equity culture and transformed the capital market.

Born in San Francisco, brought up with an average schooling and a college dropout with a deeper sense of interest in technology and calligraphy, the whole world owes to him for his inventions and designs. Yes he is the super legend STEVE JOBS, the co-founder and CEO of Apple. He was passionate, and believed in the power of vision. He identified the needs of the consumers and served it with elite design fabrication. He believed in frugal simplicity and that was the central ideology of his technological inventions.

The above mentioned examples of Coco Chanel, Dhirubhai Ambani and Steve Jobs, evidently do justice to the term ‘fresherpreneur’ and serve fair examples of rags to riches turned entrepreneur who had no pool of resources to scoop out and serve their needs, but they knew how to ‘do more with less’.

So what does it take to start up a venture? How can you be a successful fresherpreneur? What characteristics should you execute in what circumstances so that the outcome is victorious? Is education a mandatory requisite to a start-up? Is entrepreneurial journey time/career choice/age bound?

Well, let us calm down the nerves and start with understanding the term.

FRESHERPRENEUR= FRESHER + ENTREPRENEUR

 Fresherpreneur is a term that defines individuals (millenials in this epoch) who maybe college dropouts, graduates or MBA, and plan to start up their own venture manifested by swagger and buoyancy as early as in their 20’s. They may or may not have taken short duration employment jobs. Their passion factor ranks higher than their experience, and that’s what makes them a fresherpreneur. In the above context we understand that fresherpreneurs are multi-tasker, tech-savvy, achievement oriented and risk-averse.

If we talk of this era, we have maestros like Mark Zuckerberg the co-founder and now the chairman and chief-executive of Facebook, Deepinder Goyal, the appetite behind ZOMATO, David Karp, the brains behind the website Tumblr, or Aditi Gupta, founder of Menstrupedia-a social cause setup, Ajaita Shah, co-founder of Frontier Market, a solar solutions company or Sarah Blakely, founder of girl’s BFF Spanx. 

 

Stating in other words, this is the clan of eager beaver, who are looking to build powerful global solutions with innovation in technology and modernization of business models. The reason why younger ‘Gen’ is more inclined towards entrepreneurship can be attributed to better understanding of ‘hows’ of leadership coaching and easy access to ‘whys’ of technology.

They believe their 20’s is a time for experimentation, with fewer responsibilities on their back; it is easier to go for a gamble. Another rationale supporting this shift is the callowness of the young brains, which is free from the patterned thinking of playing safe of the typical experienced executives. This ‘JUGAAD’ generation doesn’t mull over a decision for long, they just get on the judgements with spunk. It may not be necessarily the right call, but a wrong decision is better than the uncertainty mishmash.

Fresherpreneurs are people’s people, they are relationship builders, and believe in ‘how the dots always connect.’ Networking is like CO_2, it’s no fun without the exchange. They totally believe in the super-power of delegation, and that’s how they create success stories with flying colours.

Fresherpreneurs work over with a frugal mindset and exemplify this famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt: “All the resources we need are in the mind”.

As they say it, with slight modification ‘it’s never too late to realize your dreams, it’s never too early either!’

So any individual can aim to be a fresherpreneur a) if you have a dream to follow, b) a desire to serve the market needs, or c) a cutting edge idea to the burning problems of the society

History is evidence to the fact that an entrepreneurial journey can start from any stage of life, does not need a pool of resources, management degrees from premier institutes or structural business models but just a ‘purpose SPINED with passion’, period.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson