A5. Is Experience essential to have your 1st Million?

General understanding is that first let me study and then work for few years to get experience and then I will start off my own.

The author believes that Experience is NOT essential to success.

From Fact file of Mr. Gupta:

When I took over the running of the Goldkist Beach Resort here in Singapore, I had no relevant experience in this industry.  Moreover I am a foreigner in this country and this was the largest piece of state owned property in the country!

I remember that when I first went for the Tender interview, there were about 10 officials sitting on the other side of the table from various government bodies and departments.

They asked me to share how I would be able to manage this property without any relevant past experience.

I told them:

1.      20 years ago, I had no business experience in the Computer industry. I still did that business and did it well. In all the products that I marketed, I was always in the Top 5.

2.      5 years ago, I had no business experience in the Mobile Phone industry. I still did that business and did it well too.

3.      Thus I am very sure, that in managing this resort, I will also do it well too.

Today, I successfully run this resort with a huge traffic of over 200,000 guests per year.

            Leave aside running business successfully isn’t it strange that despite being die-hard vegetarian we run a restaurant that serves even non-vegetarian dishes. That too not only Indian but even Chinese and Malay wedding successfully

Not only that though I may not drink or even touch liquor, but own and run a complete bar.

All without having any past experience.

The main point that we are trying to assert here is that Experience in business, may be helpful if you have it, but is not essential for business success.

Along the way, you will face many day-to-day situations that will force you to learn on your feet and these lessons will remain with you forever and cannot be replicated in any classroom environment.

Also, in the fast changing business world, past experience may never be totally relevant and applicable to new situations that you will face.

Also, by working for other businesses to gain experience, you will be limited to experience in that arena from an employees’ perspective and not that of the business owner and employer.

You will thus not be aware of the many challenges that are faced by the business owner and would not be prepared for them anyway.

So even if you have worked in a particular industry for a long time, you will not be aware of the mechanics completely and will only have a small and narrow view of that business and lack the complete bigger picture of running that business. Thus this “relevant” business experience will be questionable when starting your own business. You would not have seen the whole movie but only a small trailer!

Many people spend years in schools and colleges and Universities getting all the right paper qualifications and then go on to get the Masters degrees and even PhDs. More than 10 years of prime youth is spent chasing these paper qualifications and getting expertise in just 1 arena of life.

But in business, you can learn all the relevant skills in just 10 months if not in 10 weeks, for sure.

Here, in the world of business, it is the race of Survivability, like the rat we spoke about in the first topic. It’s not about running for food, like the cat does, but Running for life, that the rat is forced to do and life teaches you and gives you all the relevant experience daily on an on going basis as you run a Live business and not just read and study about it.

So we urge you to not allow lack of experience to stop you from taking the first step in starting the business. Experience will come and it will make you a richer person in all terms of the word.