15 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

January 1, 2010

By sinha

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary – Steve Jobs

2009 was probably not so great for Indian startup ecosystem. Thanks to recession, angels and VCs stayed away from taking big bets (as expected), so lets hope 2010 to be an interesting year for the ecosystem.

What’s interesting is that few Indian startups are raising funds from Silicon Valley angels, few of them have given up on Indian VCs and are now talking to Israel based funds –so expect 2010 to be a storming year.

Do something new this year

“If you do what you have done, you will always get what you have got”
Change your style. Get a new haircut. Make new friends.

Start Selling

If you are a geeky entrepreneur, stop coding. Stop waiting for the perfect product.
Start selling. Meet lots of sales guys. Meet marketing fellas. If you attend any event, do not get into your comfort zone (i.e. end up meeting the same old geeky friends), instead meet new guys.
And if you are an entrepreneur from marketing/sales background, get to know the engineering behind products. Get into the depth of ‘what does it take to build great products’. Helps in selling the product.

Hype vs. Substance

Stay away from hype – some of the successful companies had enough substance in them for the world to get ‘hyped’ about their products. Focus on substance.

Infact, there is a strong correlation between hype and failure, especially in Indian context (more on that later).

Everyday, do one thing that scares you

Talk to strangers. If you were scared of taking on ‘that’ big competition, still do it – coz you won’t get another chance. Everyday, do one thing that you were scared of.
Entrepreneurship is all about taking on the unknown variables. Learn the art.

Wear Sunscreen

Yeah. Watch this video for more.

Heck! article says ‘15′, where are the other new year resolutions?
You fill in.

Tags: 2010, happy new year

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Sai Pothuri on January 1, 2010 at 1:33 pm

Hello to all

Well well the core point is be opposite to your self am i right??

Up to now before recession you been always yours and that how you got affected due to recession, So its a lesson for us to be opposite for our self

This makes a sense of growth in inner personalit, so that when times comes you can be protected by your self not by anybody

Let me know the feedback

Thanks and Regards

Sai Pothuri

Tarun Dua on January 1, 2010 at 1:41 pm

“Infact, there is a strong correlation between hype and failure, especially in Indian context (more on that later)”

That is an interesting statement. Where does one draw the line between getting the word out and hype.

Ashish on January 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

Good qn. Will share my detailed perspective later, but to answer this..If your strategy is solely dependent/influenced by being profiled by media/events, its a hype.
You get the word out only when the timing is right