Harshveer Jain

“Why don't you monetize your Instagram?“ Having 450k followers over there, people have always asked me this question. My answer is always the same - “I don't want to.“

“But you quit a high paying job to follow your passion! Shouldn't you eventually make money out of it?“ is the follow-up.

“My passion was stories, not monetizing stories.“ is my answer.

Is that a pretentious moral high-ground? Possibly.
Is that smart? Mostly no.
Am I living up to my potential? Absolutely not.

Leaving a well paying job to start something of my own has massive a trade-off. My net-worth is half of what it could have been. There are days when I am jealous of my batchmates and their growth. Scrolling LinkedIn and reading about people becoming partners and CXOs makes me feel guilty. That could have been me - I have the potential!

But I always ask myself this - what's the point of living up to my full potential if I am not enjoying life?

This is not a motivational post. This is the opposite. I am a HUGE proponent of giving up, quitting and letting go. Because sure, some opportunities are once in a lifetime. But it's your lifetime. And there's no harm in just enjoying it.

All I want to say is that there will be trade-offs. Not all 'follow your passion, do what you love' stories end in ground breaking success. That's mostly movies. 9 in 10 startups shut down. Most artists never make it. Only a handful of college dropouts become rich.

So when you are on the race-track, remember this - you CAN push hard and try to win. Or you CAN take your boots off and go sit in the stands while you still have the means to. There's no shame in quitting. Both are choices. Just make the choice whose pain you can live with.

Living life up to your full potential is great - but is it worth it? That's the question you must ask yourself before committing to a dream. Else you'll fall back bitter and regretful.

Being an audience and cheerleader for others isn't half bad either, you know. Rich friends buy you Sushi!

Shark Tank judges are rude.
So are real investors.

They are demotivating founders.
So do 100s of other realities of the real world.

They are being judgemental (judges, duh), they are being too aggressive, sarcastic, unreasonable and so on.

Here's the thing: they should be.

Because the real world is that only, for a founder.

10,00,000 students give engineering entrance every year.
90%+ get admission, and then a job.
Indian IT alone hires 5,00,000+ every year.

But what about founders?
90% entrepreneurs fail.
95% startups go bust.

It is great that Shark India is making 'entrepreneurship' aspirational. In a country where it was only engineer/doctor/IAS, now entrepreneur is a valid dream.

And the judges are only replicating the realities of being a founder. Most founders I know, including myself, makes 100s of pitches every month. We convert <5%.

VCs reject 99 out of the 100 pitches they hear. And trust me, they are not always polite when saying no.

Only 1% startups get funded.

And 95% of these VC funded startups go bust.

Compare this to education - where 90% degree holders make money.

Every founder faces all the rudeness, sarcasm, disbelief, demotivation, aggressions, and a lot more, that the ones pitching on Shark Tank do.

THAT is the reality of entrepreneurship.

Statistically,
Education is low risk, cash flow positive. And you get support and respect.
Entrepreneurship is high risk, cash flow negative. And you get trolled and ridiculed.

Shark Tank is painting the right picture. Do the sharks seem like in a nexus? Are they being overly judgemental? Are the founders not given enough credit for what they have achieved? Yes.

And that's what happens in the real world.

And that's good. Most Indians are going to get a glimpse of entrepreurship through either the wild 100x success stories, or glamorous IPL ads, or now through Shark Tank.

A generation of 30M+ is aspiring to become founders. It will be unfair to them if the reality is mis-represented.

Let reality be real. And if someone can't take it, it is better they drop out after watching the TV show, rather than drop out after burning their time, money and mental peace.

Entrepreneurship is TOUGH. It should NOT be represented as anything else.