Optimism, inspiration and motivation is a state of mind, and is very personal in nature. Actions can be disconnected from the state of mind. What actions entrepreneurs should adopt, to be effective? Read what Ms. Kalindi Kale says in 'Sampada', our monthly publication

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In the face of difficult situations,
transforming optimism, into action takes
a lot of courage. Optimism does not
mean being blindsided about the
hurdles and challenges. Optimism is
being able to see a positive outcome
despite the hurdles. It is like having a
periscopic vision. A periscope that
maneuvers criss-cross the hurdles, and
shows you to the goal that is inspiring.
Optimism does not mean recklessness.
Optimism is acknowledging the
anxieties and possible failures and yet
moving firmly and positively towards the
goal. Optimism pumps energy into
efforts.
Off course, if one doesn't travel, then
one does not reach anywhere. Action is
as important as optimism, inspiration
and motivation. While optimism,
I strongly believe that before one
leads others, one must lead oneself. A
leader cannot lead people while
standing on the sidelines. Practice what
you preach has been a success mantra
for ages. I have seen phenomenal
leaders who would not mind to roll up
their sleeves, if required. These leaders
scored very high on credibility among
their employees. it is important for the
leader to have the right attitude and
action. Attitude would amount for loads
of optimism backed by equal amount of
inspiration and motivation. Before we
talk about action let us dwell for a minute
on the optimism, inspiration and
motivation.
Optimism is an attitude, Inspiration
are the 'aha' moments, Motivation is a
state of mind. Motivation can be derived
from a deep routed sense of purpose.
Whenever one feels low, revisiting the
purpose does help one to get on to the
course again. A motivated person would
always know and be mentally prepared
to act on what he/she is supposed to do
each day. The actions would be goal
driven and will have a plan with
intermittent milestones. A motivated
person would neither be hesitant to
delegate things that can be handled by
others, nor be reluctant to do it
himself/herself if situation demands.
Two 'R's in the kitty of such a person
would be reminders & rewards.Aperson
with a drive would not want anything 'not
done' even accidently, so would set
reminders for self. Celebration of
successes, big and small keeps the fire
of motivation burning.
An entrepreneur needs to be
inspired for self before that inspiration
can drive others to go beyond
themselves. Inspiration and optimism
have a symbiotic relationship.
Inspiration fuels optimism, and
optimism maintains the continuum of
inspiration. It may be a small or big
inspiration. It could be about the values,
the vision,and the mission or maybe
about the policies, the processes, or the
avenues of business. It could even be
about dealing with people or finding a
new calling. No inspiration that nudges
entrepreneur an inch forward in the
quest can be considered insignificant.
On sunny days, it may be a great idea to
make a list of all those things, activities
or people that inspire you. The list
would come in handy when one is lost
about where to look.

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Consistency: Consistency in action
requires a whole lot of commitment to
sustain the effort with a long term vision.
Consistency can be achieved by
inculcating habits, schedules and
rituals. For example as an entrepreneur
every once in a week one could review
the key tasks, while every once in a
month the goals are reviewed, every
quarter one chooses to review the
business plan, potential and avenues
and once in six months one could look at
the enabling and empowering activates.
The idea is to pick the critical success
factors of a business and building rituals
around it so that one never loses the site
of these. Consistency asks for doing
things even when you do not feel like it.
Hindsight: Taking the analogy of
Chandrashila a bit further, from time to
time when I stopped to take those
precious five breaths, I turned around to
see how high I had climbed. It gave me a
great sense of accomplishment and a lot
of grit to go forward. Apart from
Focus: Focus on the goals and the
objectives. Focus on the positivity.
Focus not just on the outcomes, but also
on the foot print that you are leaving
behind. A journey, an activity will always
leave its trail that will not go away for a
very long time. Be aware and articulate
of what trail you are leaving behind. This
trail will end up chalking the DNA and
the cultural fabric of the organization. It
will influence the sustaining capacity as
well. The 'how' part will also add up to
the goodwill you would be creating for
yourself. Needless to say, you have to
first be aware of what DNA you would
like your enterprise to possess.
inspiration and motivation is a state of
mind and very personal in nature, action
can be disconnected from the state of
mind. Here are some thoughts that
come to mind in this context. To be
effective an entrepreneurs actions
should have:
Rhythm:I would like to draw an
analogy here from my trekking
experience. While trekking uphill the
Chandrashila Summit when I tried to
increase my pace, I was getting
breathless. Blame it on the sedentary
lifestyle. Indeed I may have practiced a
bit of hiking before the trek, but one
additional factor also was, that the air is
rare as you go on heights. After all
Chandrashila is 13000 ft. above sea
level. Our guide gave me a valuable
lesson that can be applied to our work
life as well. He told me, while pace is
important, building a rhythm in the pace
eliminates a lot of effort. He instructed
me to determine the number of steps
before pausing to recoup for a few
seconds. Climb 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…… Pause
for 5 breaths… climb again. It motivated
me to complete those specific counts of
steps when I was getting breathless.
However, he instructed me to pause
after specific number of steps whether
or not I was breathless. My efforts
reduced to a great extent. I realized that
not only my pace increased, rhythm also
enhanced my motivation. It also helped
me to look around and absorb the scenic
beauty every time I paused for those five
breaths.
Pace: Adjust the pace based on the
urgency and importance. Induce a
sense of urgency in the minds of the
employees for significant activities. The
pace can also be determined by the
number of people that should be walking
along side. Like they say, if you want to
go far, walk alone; if you want to go
strong, walk together.

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motivation, hindsight would also help
you learn from the mistakes that you
may have committed. It could tell you if a
course correction was required. One
would be able to gauge one's strengths
a n d t h i n k t h r o u g h b u i l d i n g
effectiveness.
And now D-for Discipline
Persistence: Persistence is more
about providing a follow through to the
actions or decisions that have already
been taken. Persistence will ensure
achievement of results. It would take a
lot of effort to stay at it, particularly when
the results are distant or the pace and
progress is either slower than planned
or the things are not going as desired.
In the words of Abraham Lincoln,
“Discipline is choosing between what
you want now and what you want most.“
It is the bridge between goals and
success. An entrepreneur needs to
exercise discipline on two levels, a. self
discipline and b. business discipline.
Self discipline:
Be truthful to self: Sometimes one
gets a feeling that as an entrepreneur
one lives many lives. How one comes
across to the customers and how one
comes across to the employees is way
different than each other. How an
entrepreneur gets projected in the
fraternity is yet another aspect. There
are filters and walls in the roles that an
entrepreneur plays. In the heat of all the
roles that are significant, one may
project only one aspect of the 'elephant'.
However, it is important that at least to
oneself, an entrepreneur should look at
the elephant in room holistically. There
might be some insights about self or the
business that could be good or bad, but,
h a r d t o d i g e s t . T h e l e a s t a n
e n t r e p r e n e u r s h o u l d d o i s t o
acknowledge the same to self. With
acknowledgement starts the journey of
correction.
Be punctual: Be punctual in arriving
to office on time, replying to mails, taking
decisions. It will help to get things off the
plate on time. Moreover, your staff is
watching you. `Wm amOm VWm àOm. They
will follow your lead.
Ti m i n g & Ti m e l i n e s s : Ye s ,
punctuality and timeliness& timing are
two different disciplines. There are
several activities like reprimand,
reward, apology, action, giving and
fulfilling commitments, paper work etc.,
where timeliness and timing is
important. As an example, if need gets
created to reprimand someone, or
reward someone, justice delayed is
justice denied. However, if the
circumstances are such, when acting
out would be counterproductive (e.g.
presence of customers/ outsiders/ junior
staff in case of reprimand) one has to
know that a few minutes delay will avoid
any negative fall-outs of that reprimand.
Timeliness needs promptness and
timing may need restrain.
Be proactive: Have a edge over the
rest. Do not wait for the opportunity to
knock your door. Pre-empt and create

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the opportunities. Similarly do not wait
for hurricane to hit you. Work on pre-
emptive damage control. Doing failure
analysis and keeping a plan B and plan
C is wise. It is not a reflection on your
confidence in the planA.
Keep connected with people that
matter: As the time goes by and the
organization grows, more people join in.
Layers get created in the organization.
The layers also create distance
between the entrepreneur and the
people. So often I have heard
successful entrepreneurs lamenting
that they do not know people by their
names any more. Keeping connected
needs a conscious effort. One need to
earmark time or activity dedicated to
keeping connected and has to be
particular about following through that
activity. I have seen entrepreneurs
losing touch with people who have
helped them in their days of struggle,
their mentors, their star ex-employees
and such important people which they
are remorseful about later. It needs an
effort to keep connected with these
people as well.
Keep an eye on profit everyday:
Some business communities in India,
have a system of recording the inflow
and out flow on daily basis in such a way
that at the end of every day they would
know if the day was a plus for them or
minus. It may be a great idea to look into
such systems and adopt them. A small
plus almost every day would surely
cumulate into a successful year.
However, there could be gains on some
days that one may not be able to
calculate in currency. These gains may
be strategic; they too need to be valued.
Negotiate: Profits are built on not
taking things on the face value.
Expenses can be saved on good
negotiation. I have witnessed some very
hard negotiations. Sometimes
negotiators become insensitive of the
fact that other person is also doing
business. A win- lose situation usually
quickly turns into a lose- lose situation. If
the negotiation drives the opposite party
to the wall, it is very likely that the
opposite party may cut corners or
compromise on quality or delivery
schedules to make up for the erosion at
their end. Negotiate earnestly but with
fairness.
Build network: Keeping connected
with old contacts does not absolve an
entrepreneur of building new network.
New horizons, new directions are going
to come from new people in the network.
In the hectic pace of everyday, one
might lose sight building new networks
that would benefit the business. While
doing so, one also must have a closer
look at what are the long term and short
term goals of the organization and then
focus the effort on crafting the network
t h a t w o u l d h e l p t h e f u t u r e
accomplishment. It goes without saying
that building focused network and
building relationships with this network
are two different things needing different
efforts.
Business discipline: Saving and spending: The concept
'business cycle', itself determines the
'cycle' of ups and downs in the business.
Plan in advance and create reserves.
Exercise financial discipline. Ensure
that monies allocated to mandatory
activities do not get diverted to other
activities. Availability of cash-flows will
always tempt one for over spend.
Exercise restrain… focus… Financial
discipline is the nucleus of stability of
businesses. Warren Buffet says, “We
don't have to be smarter than the rest,
we have to be more disciplined than the
rest.”

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70 I ride the tide rather than fighting it
77 My recovery from the setbacks is rather quick
62 I stick to my routine, but I am not rigid
75 I plan the work
80 Setbacks make me more vigilant
73 I may fail, but I will not fail myself
64 I feel inspired most of the times
61 I may not know everything
65 When I am low, I do not mind talking it out to few close ones
63 I have the ability to change myself if the business requires it
67 I can take advice
69 In my past, I have faced failures and come out shining
68 I am not shy of rolling up my sleeves from time to time and dirtying my hands
71 I know at times I may have to compromise with my standard of living
Sr. No. I think………. 1 2 3 4 5
66 I have few wise people close to me, with whom I can talk it out if required
72 I have enough mental and physical energy when the time gets tough
74 I am ready for hard work as well as smart work
76 I work the plan
78 I do celebrate success
79 Success does not make me complacent
Here is the way you score yourself 1= Note at all; 2= Mostly no; 3=May be; 4= Mostly yes; 5= Very much so
Table 1
Keep your ears to the ground:
conduct market research. Market
research of internal as well as external
market will give you crucial information
about your industry. This would give you
important triggers to execute and adapt
your plans. Know about updates on your
industry (Political, Economical, Social,
Technological, Market, Legal and
Environmental). Know about the trends
a n d g r o w t h r a t e s . K n o w y o u r
competition, and your customers. Also,
keep checking the pulse of the
employees- current as well as
future.Similarly, taking regular reviews
of the departmental heads, with follow
through on specific SMART goals would
also help an organization to stay close to
ground reality. This discipline is rarely
enjoyable but almost always profitable.
Test your ideas: Entrepreneurs are
entrepreneurs because of their sharp
instincts about the business ideas. It is
important to keep those instincts alive.
However, at times series of successes
could make one believe that all the ideas
are bound to be good. An entrepreneur
is a human too, as prone to error as
anyone else. If you have the right
connections that will help you to test
your ideas, do use those connects.
Bounce the ideas with people, do a pilot
testing before launching full-fledged.
Sometimes the risk is not worth taking.
Events.
Dr. Kalindi Kale,
Do you have it in you!
----------------------------------------------------
Email: kalindikale@gmail.com
Continuing from where we left off,
here are the next 20 questions that you
may ask yourself about your mind as an
entrepreneur that you may want to pass
on as a DNAto the enterprise. (Table1)
Founder ofARCSticture and Buzzroute
Customer satisfaction: To me
customer satisfaction is more of a
discipline more than a goal that the
company should aim for. According to
Merriam-Webster dictionary Discipline
is control gained by enforcing
obedience or order, orderly or
prescribed conduct or pattern of
behavior, training that corrects, molds,
or perfects the mental faculties or moral
character. For perpetuality of success of
an enterprise, Customer satisfaction
has to become more of a discipline than
a much sought aspiration. The
ownership of inculcating customer
satisfaction as a discipline lies on the
shoulder of the entrepreneur.
The list of disciplines that the
entrepreneur should have is daunting.
One may ask, where is the freedom that
entrepreneurship should have got me?
All this discipline is binding me so hard. I
would like to quote Steven Covey and
say- Many people see discipline as the
absence of freedom, when in fact it is the
source of freedom.