Are You an Entrepreneur – Victor Kiam

Q. Describe Victor Kiam’s views on how to become a successful entrepreneur?

Victor Kiam’s essay “Are You an Entrepreneur” advises an upcoming entrepreneur to follow certain self-restricted discipline to become a successful one.   He says a successful entrepreneur has to strive hard initially to win the confidence of a customer. The entrepreneur should be ready to take risks and he ought to be willing to roll the dice with his money and stake his reputations in support of his idea or a project to execute it. He must make some sacrifices if necessary to achieve success.

The author says that his thirty five years of experience of entrepreneurship gave him a good idea of the entrepreneur’s profile.  He says that an entrepreneur should ask himself the following questions if he wished to be a successful entrepreneur.

 Do I have enough confidence in my venture?

• Am I willing to make sacrifices?
• Do I recognize opportunity?
• Am I decisive?
• Do I have enough self-confidence?
• Am I willing to lead by example?

With these questions, the author of the essay proceeds to tell us the characteristics traits of a successful entrepreneur.

A prospective entrepreneur must believe in himself. We cannot inspire others if we don’t believe in ourselves. Lack of confidence is not a disease but a symptom. Self-perceived negatives rob an individual’s healthy ego. The author asks us to prepare a list of our minuses and pluses. One has to overcome the identified minuses with required efforts and cautious self-amendments.  So, one has to decide himself and do his best to overcome his minuses.

A prospective entrepreneur has to work hard for sixteen hours a day and all seven days of a week. The product you sell in the market or the service you offer should be qualitative. If not all efforts of an entrepreneur will become waste. You cannot sell anything which you would not ready to buy it.

“No pain – no gain” should be the credo of an every entrepreneur. Nothing can be achieved without painful risks. Working hours like ‘nine-to-five’ does not exist. One has to forget the clock while doing his work. He has to sacrifice his personal comforts and weekend relaxations. One should not be a successful entrepreneur unless he is ready to sacrifice some of his personal comforts and luxuries.

Opportunities are rarely come to us and we should make use of them by through examination of all angles of its proposition. One should not neglect any of the slightest opportunity that comes in your way.

An upcoming entrepreneur has to be a decisive. He should not be logged down by the difficulties and unexpected turns which may challenge him. One has to take right decision at the given moment and act decisively.

Finally, an entrepreneur has to become an example for his employees and workers. He cannot ask an employee to do something which he himself is not willing to do. He has to work harder than his employees do. There will be rewards for an entrepreneur who is ready to sacrifice. They find satisfaction in creating something out of nothing. They will gain a positive sense of self-confidence and of course, there will be financial rewards too.

Entrepreneurship is not as easy as we talk off. A prospective entrepreneur should work hard and work with a vision. He has to be practical and be able to apply his mind to the situations and circumstances. He should have confidence in himself and he should show others that he leads others by his own example.

To sum up, entrepreneurship is not easy but one has to strive hard to achieve his goal. David may not be remembered if had slain a dwarf instead of Goliath.

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Growing up – Joyce Cary

Joyce Cary’s story “Growing up” is about ‘generation gap’ between a father and his two daughters. The story begins with a father coming home from business trip to his family. He expects joy and excitement at his homecoming from his daughters but surprised by their indifference. He meets his daughters in the garden and they begin to behave in an alarmingly violent fashion. He panics but the ‘game’ ceases as abruptly as it had started. Later the girls’ mother arrives with the welfare committee and to father’s bewilderment; they (the girls) behaved themselves as well-educated young ladies while distributing tea to the committee members. Finally, after tea, his youngest daughter positions herself in superior posture to examine her father’s wound.

At the beginning of the story Mr. and Mrs. Quick seem to neglect their daughters with their busy schedules of his business and her social work. There is a clear divide between daughters and father and they do not fully connect to one another. The girls are seen in the wild garden reflects the wildness of the girls. The daughters are presented as untidy and dirty; certainly not the sweet innocent daughter figures as the father imagines them to be.

Mr. Robert Quick almost scared of his daughters’ savage manners when Jenny and Kate do communicate with him. They are violent to the dog, snort, too. The language they use becomes angry, violent and fragmented to emphasis the horror of the situation. Robert Quick is shocked, but his remonstration is pathetic and results in the savage game where his daughters attack him like wild animals. They talk to him like as if he is an equal and, in fact, inferior to them when they inspect the plaster they have placed on his wound.

The show changes immediately as soon as their mother comes home with members of welfare committee in to adult seriousness and responsibility when handing round the tea. With all these experiences the father realizes that they have changed, grown up and he is older too. Thus, the relationship between father and daughters has changed in the course of time.

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The Canker of Untruth – M K Gandhi

Q. What is Gandhi’s attitude to Indian Youths going about with English girls? What was his own

      experience? How did he enjoy it?

Child marriages were almost a common practice in India till the later part of the 20^th Century. The Indian students going to England for their higher education were either already married or were forced to marry before setting on voyage to England. In England all college students were bachelors, studies being regarded as incompatible with married life. Therefore, Indian students in England felt ashamed to confess that they were married. If they would say that they were married, it would be impossible for them to flirt with young girls of the family with whom they were living. The flirting was more or less innocent. Parents even encourage it and that sort of association between young men and women may even be necessity there.

Many Indian Students succumbed to the temptation in indulging such relations, choosing a life of untruth. Gandhi viewed it as undesirable but he too caught in the contagion. He did not hesitate to pass himself off as a bachelor though he was already married and had a son. But he was none the happier being a dissembler. His reserve and his habit of reticence saved him from going into deeper water.

It was a customary in the English families, taking out their guests for evening walk accompanying with the young ladies of those families. One day his land lady’s daughter took him to the nearby lovely hills of Ventnor. Though Gandhi was not slow walker but his companion walked even faster, dragging him after her all the way.  She was flying like a bird whilst he was thinking when he would get back home. They, thus, reached to the top of a hill. Despite her high-heeled shoes, she darted down the hill like an arrow while Gandhi struggling to get down. However he came down with the greatest difficulty with the help of the young lady. 

After a few days later, Gandhi met an old lady who was kind and affectionate. She invited him to her London house for dinner. The old lady enthusiastically introduced Gandhi to many more ladies while he visited her house on Sundays. This acquaintance with ladies helped him to come out from the bashfulness.  Taking this opportunity as an advantage Gandhi developed a special attraction towards a young lady. She too felt interested in their meetings. Later, Gandhi felt guilty for not revealing the secret of his marriage. He decided to declare the truth and wrote a letter confessing her that he was married and had a son. He thanked her for her concern and affection. The old lady was very happy on receipt of his letter. She liked his sincerity and honesty and invited him to her home further. In this way, Gandhi purged himself of the canker of untruth. 

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