My ebook: Journeys with the caterpillar

My ebook
"
Journeys with the caterpillar: Travelling through the islands of Flores
and Sumba, Indonesia
" is available at
this link


Thursday, July 14, 2005

Armchair Entrepreneur

A handful of MBAs do social service, and a few start their own companies. The rest of them are employees at various levels in hot-shot firms. Among this class a select few become what I call "Armchair Entrepreneurs". I shall not divulge whether I am one of them but i know the breed quite well...Also I owe this post a lot to Jayesh who helped me thrash out the profile of the armchair entrepreneur.
How do you know an armchair entrepreneur? Most of them behave in the workplace as if they have seen it all, they have changed a few jobs, worked on different roles and make fairly decent money; and having seen it all they have come to the conclusion-its not worth it and that they should start their company anytime now. And here is what sets apart our armchair entrepreneur. He has been only thinking for the last 3-4 years. He believes that thinking about a business model is all that is requiresd....he is too lazy, content or risk averse to try it out and is happier telling 'i told u 5 yrs back' when someone else creates a business of it. Every month or so he takes industries one by one and reads as many analyst reports as he can. Finally he junks that industry again saying- "its not worth it". Among friends he discusses company stocks as if the CEO of those companies were his best pals and told him all the insider secrets before going to bed. His main crib is 'other just dont get it'. Now he often brings in as many friends as willing to the virtual board of his ever forming virtual companies. And he feels that even if 3 people agree, he is victorious. He hates people who asks uncomfortable questions about his business plans and stops talking to them. Among his friend circle he frequently cites some distant relative or friend who earns so much by doing so little. He frequnetly drops names of Michael Dell and the Google-yahoo guys and how some fictitious contact is ever eager to sponsor him. And his most terrific character is that he is a cynic in his own class- he pollutes others around him and laughs loud when others say- i worked till 11PM, 10PM, 8PM, 7 PM, 6PM, 4PM. Eventually they get married, join infosys/ TCS, buy a house, rest happily ever after.

Do you know someone like him or are you one of him?

2 comments:

Bart said...

Was this referring to Jayesh? ;) :)) Just kidding..

Shivaji said...

No comments on whether I and Jayesh belong to this class..