How Entrepreneurs Can Make a Real Change?The entrepreneurs who want to leave a social impact actually go out and make change for generations to come

ByPriyank Narayan

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Shutterstock

Entrepreneurs, dressed with curiosity and ardour to make a change, are proactive thinkers. This spirited thinking is what sets them apart from routine job seekers and organizational managers. The world in which we are currently living alters every minute because of enthused demand and supply of goods and services. Continuous technological advancement only adds to this refashioning dynamics, and these fluxing advents offer us multifarious opportunities, challenges, and problems. If given a chance, entrepreneurs around the world, could take to rooftops and proclaim themselves as persistent "solution finders" and "solution providers". Needless to say, such jovial tags in fact in all seriousness are justified as we owe an unpayable debt to such innovators and thinkers.

Entrepreneurship Today

With the enlarging population of entrepreneurs, supplemented by an ever-increasing number of prestigious universities offering entrepreneurship courses, the idea of problem identification has become pivotal in any entrepreneurial journey. The challenge is that most entrepreneurs these days think about the idea first and then weave a problem around it. This is not to doubt their credibility or ability to execute things on the ground, but the crucial process of identifying real problems shouldn't take a backseat. There is no universal approach to entrepreneurship and in some cases, the ventures need to be idea-driven, but the impact of a framework which identifies real problems first and then moves on to devising solutions is tenfold.

The Issues

Understanding real problems demands from an entrepreneur an empathetic attitude towards their colleagues, employees, stakeholders, customers, and more importantly their surroundings. Sometimes seeing from the eyes is not enough, and you need to see from your heart. Here, empathy by no means should be confused with sympathy. Being empathetic doesn't mean that an entrepreneur should hire an undeserving employee out of pity or recklessly invest in a resource that in future will bear no fruits. Empathy has got to do more with understanding what the other person feels by putting yourself in their shoes. It is impossible to please everyone around you all the time, but there is an intoxicating charm of self-satisfaction in exercising an empathetic approach. This method also possesses the potential to harness the unexplored methods of innovative thinking, which all entrepreneurs exercise in their daily life in their own unadulterated way.

Benefits

Consider it the benefit of a conducive environment, the new generation of entrepreneurs like to start-up big while learning at the university itself. The availability of resources at one's fingertips brings along with it the challenge of aggregating them for optimal usage. Optimal resource management is a key trait that all successful entrepreneurs have a mastery on. For doing a job X, you can do it with Y resources, and you can also do it with less than Y resources. It merely depends on an entrepreneur's decision making and leadership skills. The best part of resource management is that it is as easily learnable as it is implementable. To make real change, a test the millennial entrepreneurs will face is to create a business with a social sensitivity that is backed by a sustainable model. This idea of contributing back to society has been addressed by leading social entrepreneurs like Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Sonam Wangchuk in their talks across the globe. The benefit of a space which renders a multidisciplinary education is that it encourages students to see problems with multiple lenses and then come with solutions. This practice inadvertently brings in an element of social consciousness right from the inception of the thought process. Such breed of entrepreneurs will not only be great thinkers but efficient executors as well, simply because a reward bigger than monetary gain awaits them. The entrepreneurs who conspire to leave a social impact actually go out and make change for generations to come.

Wavy Line
Priyank Narayan

Director, Entrepreneurship Programmes - Ashoka University

Priyank is a seasoned entrepreneur and an educationist who brings with him rich experience in organization building. He is the Founder of IndiaPreneurship, an organisation focused on showcasing entrepreneurial opportunities in India to the world. He also mentors a number of startups based in India and abroad. Priyank is a visiting faculty at IIT Delhi, Department of Management Studies. An alumnus of AIM, Manila and IIM Ahmedabad, Priyank is an avid golfer and a licensed scuba diver. He is also trained in Indian classical music.


Related Topics

News and Trends

India is Expected to Increase Its Spending on Cybersecurity by 18% Between 2020 and 2025

Due to India and the US's combined contribution of 16% of the world's talent pool for cybersecurity trained resources, the India-US corridor is the mainstay for international cybersecurity outsourcing services.

Thought Leaders

I Pitched 300 People a Day For 1 Year — and Learned This Impactful Entrepreneurial Lesson

After working myself to the bone pitching 300 people each day for one year, I came out of that experience as a new man — but surprisingly, an unhappier one. Here's what I learned.

Business News

'This Is My Life Now': Man Hysterically Documents Elon Musk's 'X' Sign Blaring Flashing Lights Into His Bedroom Window

The sign, reportedly put up without a permit, is shining bright at X HQ in San Francisco.

Technology

对半导体我印度日益增长的承诺ndustry

The international collaborations with the US, Japan, Australia and upcoming opportunities with other like-minded countries hold significant importance, says External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar addressing the last day of the three-day SemiconIndia 2023

News and Trends

Google Invites Applications For Eighth Batch Of Startups Accelerator Programme

Applications are open until August 22, and eligible startups should have AI as a core solution or product, including generative AI