You might have a great idea but doesn’t mean that it is for you. Why am I the right person for the idea ?

I may sound a little offensive here, but I am trying to highlight a fact about a mass behavior which by no means implicates you as a part of it, but just warns you against the same.

In India the most obvious mindset of people is TRADER mindset , the mass hardly thinks for creating solutions, but rather always thinks of purchasing from X place and Selling at Y , by gaining either a location advantage or economies of scale or sheer convenience.

95% of ideas are services based idea. This goes in line with the trader mindset, Real Estate venture where you will help people seeking flats (rented/ for purchase) faster, more appropriate and at a lower commission. Another, you will help people book their travel indulgences all at one place, bargain with the vendors on their behalf and get them the best deals. 80% of the ideas actually implemented by students (or fresh out of campus) are software based ideas -Invariably a dot com.

Just a pause, I never went to say good or bad, I just mentioned the mass behavior. There is a Specific Underlying reason which explains all of them and also explains my “WHY ME?” question. In India, you will not find many students who are PhDs , forget double PhDs. Even if someone is a PhD, he doesn’t have any working knowledge of things but can explain the heaviest of the theories. Our Engineering base is so weak, that only rarest of the mechanical / Electrical / Electronics engineers have the confidence/experience of creating their own prototypes/products. Our Education system is so theoretical and very low on practical experience that we ourselves don’t value our peer as a Domain Expert. Only computer science students here are exceptions, because only they know how to implement their science – that is to code. Why? Because the infrastructure for the same is cheap, Implementation of their science is Actually theoretical (its writing codes only right ) . Since we can’t create, we choose only to serve (Services). That’s why India is the abode of Services industries, and laggard in the Manufacturing space. Since People can’t create or produce, they Trade. Since we don’t know how to create our prototypes, our ventures are not about physical products but more about services because man power is what we can lay our hands on quickly. Since all engineers can implement is write codes, our startups are all either web based or software driven. Again my point is not to ridicule any set of people, but an effort to underline a reality. That reality is All Engineers are same – They can code. Everyone thinks he can Trade. Everyone thinks he is Right for the Services venture. Here lies the problem.

Since We don’t see people as Functional Experts – A Mechanical Engineer as someone who can Create actual products or machines – We stop respecting the Functions all together. In the end result, People never ask this question, WHY AM I THE BEST PERSON FOR THE IDEA? They take the answer for granted. How you as a person which you abilities, education and experience contribute to the idea?

Let us take the idea as a case: small Micro social networks for housing colonies, where each colony has now 2000 flats & 8000 inhabitants. This is a large enough pool for people to interact among themselves, share local information, exchange services (like lawyer helping a dentist and vice a versa). Now, this is your idea fine, but just imagine that DLF, GMR, etc are companies with suppose 1000 employees each ( say , 10,000 ) who work in this space every day, 8000 people live in each complex and there are 100 such complexes making 8 lakh people, The point is there is a high chance Some other guy somewhere also has the same idea , How does it make you a better bet than him ? Just because you stumbled upon the idea, doesn’t make you right for the job or the job right for you.

The person needs to write down on a piece of paper the following:

• Who am I?
• What is my qualification or Background?
• How I as a person Add value to the idea? Where I create a difference.

The Idea is not to discourage you to do something. But to acknowledge the challenges, the financial requirement and the human resource required executing the project. This at some point also helps you appreciate competitors and the strength of the competitors. A better part would be the study the founding team of an established competitor to give you an idea of kind of team required to work in that domain. Many people think, once they hit it off or once they have money, they will change the team. It never happens.