Just back from a two day trip to Ahmedabad. The event: IIMA Entrepreneurs’ Meet.

Good fun. Good to see so many of the off-roaders meet and share their experiences. Sanjiv Bikhchandani (naukri.com), Deep Kalra (makemytrip.com), Shantanu Prakash (Educomp) and a host of other successful entrepreneurs – the event had to be an enriching experience.

A lot of beliefs corroborated and most important amongst them was that wisdom cannot be transferred. It had to be experienced and everyone has to find their own path.

Questions like what business to start, when to start and how to start are the questions no one can answer for you. Infact, if you still believe you need someone to answer these questions or even guide you in the quest of these answers, you are not yet ready for entrepreneurship.

A very interesting question came up during a general conversation with a fairly senior alumni. “What was the source of motivation to be an entrepreneur? What made you certain that you wanted to be an entrepreneur?”.

It may look an innocuous question but its actually difficult to answer. What made me think I wanted to do it, more so, so early in my career. I quit my campus job in 4 months knowing from the day one that it was not for me and then joined a startup IT services company. My next job was with a small IT products company and all these moves were just to prepare myself better for eventual plunge that I was going to take. The question is how come I knew I wanted this in my second year itself.

The fact is, you just know. It is an instinctive feeling that that’s the only thing you want to do. External factors do help, for example, the biggest contribution of Prof Sunil Handa is that he shows you that you are not the only one to have to pass through a tough phase thereby rationalizing the pain and making it easier to bear. The economic environment helps, supportive spouse helps, encouraging friends help, even Maniratnam’s “Guru” helps – but finally, its that queer little voice in your belly that screams.

It’s something like fire can only burn, it has to burn for that is it’s Dharma or destiny or whatever you may call it. A scorpion HAS to sting and an eagle HAS to prey. Similarly, an entrepreneur HAS to do that, he’s got no choice. The queer little voice inside would not let him do anything else.

At least that’s what happened with me, though being true to my craft of entrepreneurship, I cannot suggest to anyone that that’s a model scenario and that’s how it has to be. Find your own truth – for that is the essence of entrepreneurship – finding your own path.