Are You Mad? Then You Might Be an Entrepreneur.

“Are you mad?”

That was my boss's reaction when I told him I was quitting my high-paying investment banking job to start a business.

Fair question.

He asked me, “Which competitor are you joining?”

“None. I'm starting a business.”

“Family business?”

“No. My own.”

“Capital?”

“No, I don't have any.”

“Partner?”

“No. I am alone.”

“Where?”

“Hyderabad.”

“You're from Hyderabad?”

“No. I've never been there.”

At this point, he looked at me as if I had just announced that I was going to start a rocket company on the moon.

“Are you mad?”

I said, “Yes.”

I then proceeded to prove him right.

Proving him right

I decided to start a fitness club for women. And I had no experience with either.

I used whatever little money I had to order gym equipment from the US and pay the deposit for a 3,000 sq ft space.

And then I had zero money left.

The gym interiors would cost around ₹30 lakh to build. Rent had started. Time was running. And I had made one rule: I would not ask friends or family for money. And it was 2008, so startup funding was practically not born yet.

If I were my own consultant, I would have fired myself on Day 1.

But I had no choice. I needed to build the gym.

So I did what every rational entrepreneur does when he has no money.

I Googled, “architect near me.”

I found a small architect, probably earning less than ₹10 lakh a year, met him and said, “I have a project. But I have no money. Can you design it for free?”

He looked at me, quite amused. But my poor face does magic to people. He surprisingly agreed and probably thought it was his CSR contribution for the next 10 years.

But I was not done.

Then I added, “Also, can you build it for ₹10 lakh instead of ₹30 lakh using some innovative techniques?”

He smiled at my guts and reluctantly agreed.

And because apparently I had not embarrassed myself enough, I added one more thing: “Actually, I don't have ₹10 lakh either. Can you put that money in from your pocket and fund the project? I'll give you nothing in return. Just gratitude. I have a feeling I'll get some money in three months and I'll be able to pay you back. But I have no leads as of now.”

If my fellow Marwaris heard my negotiation, I would probably be crowned the King of Marwaris.

What do you think he said?

He said YES. A freaking yes. Which is almost unthinkable.

Not only did he say yes, he worked 18 hours a day and built the entire gym as if it were his own. With heart. With pride. With madness.

Now I had one small problem left.

How would I pay him back?

On the day of the inauguration, a friend walked in, looked around and said, “This is amazing. Can I invest ₹10 lakh in your business?”

Exactly the amount I needed.

Crazy.

Perfectly sensible advice

Now, if you were the consultant advising me at any point in this journey, what would you have told me?

1. “Don't quit your job.”
2. “Don't move to a city where you know nobody.”
3. “Don't start a fitness club if you have never been to one.”
4. “Don't invest your savings before you have funding.”
5. “Don't ask an unknown architect to finance your business. And that too for nothing.”

All perfectly sensible advice.

Entrepreneurs don't always optimise for what is most rational. They optimise for what might be possible.

This is where I think consultants and entrepreneurs sometimes play different games.

A consultant looks at probabilities. A 50% chance of success feels risky. An entrepreneur often looks at possibilities. Even a 1% chance can feel worth pursuing.

That doesn't mean entrepreneurs are always right. They aren't. Sometimes conviction is just stupidity wearing a nice suit.

But sometimes, conviction can move people in ways that logic cannot.

The entrepreneur's ability to take risks, live with uncertainty and believe in something before there is evidence is not a bug in the system. It is the system.

Don't remove the madness

So if you advise entrepreneurs, perhaps the job isn't always to tell them what is rational. Sometimes, it is to understand why they believe the irrational might just work.

Because if you remove all the madness from an entrepreneur, you may also remove the entrepreneur.