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Monday, September 1, 2008

Chapter: Two : Philosophy – Who needs it?

YOU. You as an entrepreneur need philosophy the most. By philosophy, I don’t mean the constant pondering over the meaninglessness of life. I mean the code of values, the ethical foundation of your actions. Some people might dismiss philosophy as something of a theoretical nature and not something to be applied in someone’s life, but it is actually everything contrary to this belief.

Let me first illustrate why of all the people on the planet, you need to understand and apply it the most.

Any individual who is conscious and rational needs to have a solid ground of his ideals and ethics. They are as mandatory for the existence of a rational individual as the lungs in a living body. Sometimes, it just boils down to defining your rights and wrongs. Talking especially of the risk-taking entrepreneurs who constantly defy the set limitations and the rules, they need a background and a foundation on which they’ll build their judgement. This ground serves not only as the building block behind any judgment but also as a scale against which they can measure their success.
The power of having this ground at an individual level is so important that it becomes strikingly evident for a business model to incorporate these rules.
It is quite possible that the young people who are just embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship find it an unnecessary burden but as one walks on this path, he may find himself confronted with choices which not only challenge his logical abilities but also require him to challenge his ethical limitations and expectations. In cases like this, if you don’t have a benchmark based on which you may take sound decisions; you are not for the long race.

When we were involved with precimark, which dealt in the concept of precise marketing and head hunting for startups on social networking sites, we were faced with a crucial decision regarding spamming. Spamming is usually the fastest way to spread word about you and your company, but we decided against any form of privacy invasion and followed the longer route.

It takes time, but let me tell you, it pays to respect and understand the private virtual space of everyone. We had our ethics and moral practices in place and the journey was made easier. I don’t know if we had adopted the unethical way, how far we could have gone, but we thought the success achieved by such unscrupulous means won’t be worth achieving at all. There are times when you can’t shirk off your duties by believing that’s the way the cookie crumbles because the cookie is now in your hands.

Reverting back to philosophy, every would be- entrepreneur must enlighten himself and be prepared to face such issues head one without loosing one’s cool. Alan Greenspan in his book, the age of turbulence admits to being impressed by Ayn rand and her philosophy of objectivism. One is not supposed to read Aristotle but whatever feeds your intellectual hunger.