How Do We Win In A Hostile Environment

One of the biggest challenges that a Startup, Innovator or an Entrepreneur faces is the resistance and demotivation he faces from his own family, especially Father and Mother. People to whom you can’t talk back, people you are forced to listen to when they speak, people whom you have to see everyday.

It might be a taboo to talk about this. But it’s a reality that is preventing many from not starting anything, or not starting a business that they love to do opposed to what they ought to do.

Some parents are such wholesale dealers of negativism that it’s unimaginable. They use religion, emotional black mailing and even emotional attack to stop you from making that jump, or from continuing what you are doing.

I feel it’s the hardest part that our young entrepreneurs face. Many a times it’s about money. Most of our old generation do not see the beauty of creating something new. They are only concerned about the financial aspect, “so how much are you making now?”. And that’s it.

The measuring yard is only the positive cash flow, the rest (innovative product, a service that adds value to humanity, something that creates jobs, saves environmental etc) gets no appreciation from them. They see it with contempt. It’s always something that others have to do, not their sons or daughters.

How do we survive this extreme challenge, that erupts within our house itself? Positively ignore.

Just know that your life is yours (not your father’s, mothers’s, wife’s or even your kids). You don’t get a second chance. You believe in something, and if doing it makes you happy- just do it. You should learn to detoxify yourself everyday from the negativity that you heard the other day. If possible move away from staying with them (if you have brothers and sisters who are with parents- as they should never be made alone). And look into mirror and say, it’s not about money, big house than neighbour or bigger car than your friends. It’s about living a life that you won’t regret. Money is what you earn in process to get your family and yourself going.

Then you might end up making a multi billion enterprise or you might end up doing a small business. Either way, you die without regrets nor will you pass the responsibility of living “your life” to your sons.