Aditya Kothadiya's Blog

You are disciplined when you…

• do things when there is no one watching you.
• do things when it’s no-more a task for you but it’s your habit.
• do things consistently and it’s not a once in a blue moon action.
• do things because you want to prove to yourself and not to somebody else.
• take extra effort because you want to improve your standard.
• don’t have to explicitly explain to others that you are disciplined because it will be evident from your actions.
• know it’s not a destination, but is a journey…

I learned very insightful list of questions that we should ask to ourselves before we jump to start a new business idea. It’s the list of questions that Kiran Mazumdar Shaw asks herself when she choose one idea over another while starting a new business.

1. Do I have the basic understanding of the area?
2. Do I know something about what is happening in the larger space of that idea?
3. How will I build the differentiation, particularly if the idea is a common product?
4. How do I make it affordable and at the same time deliver high value?
5. Wherever there is a collaborator involved in the ideation process, how do I create larger leverage through the relation beyond just that one idea?
6. Do I know who will be a paying customer and how I will go about marketing my idea?
7. Finally, do I have conviction about the idea?

Hope these questions will help us to find the next big opportunity.

I just read these interesting tips on Rediff, so sharing it with you. My favorite lines are highlighted below -

• It’s customers that made Dell great in the first place, and if we’re smart enough and quick enough to listen to customer needs, we’ll succeed.
• I learned very early to surround myself with talented people who challenge convention, offer new ideas and relentlessly drive for improvement. And to let those people thrive. Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people… or find a different room.
• Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity that you miss the right opportunity.
• There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.
• One of the things I benefited from when I started this business was that I didn’t know anything. I was just instinct with no preconceived notions. This enabled me to learn and change quickly without having to worry about maintaining any kind of status quo, like some of my bigger competitors.

I hope you will find this useful.