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Are you deciding to join SLP?

Wondering what it is all about? Confused?

Are you Starting Up?

I’ve got something to share that will help you become successful or get even better at your startup.

What is more important to you? Reputation or a fat Paycheck for standing a lousy job? Integrity or Career? Employment or a dream come true? Passion and contentment or Pension from retirement? These were questions I used to wake up every morning when I had Cofounded Adom Technologies while still working in a job at an MNC.

Then one day I chose to take the plunge and take the journey of entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs are those who have the ability to fail, an ability to have ideas, to sell those ideas, to execute those ideas, the courage to risk and venture into the unknown and one who is utterly persistent so even failing becomes a learning process and an overall adventurous journey.
Is everyone an entrepreneur? – NO

Can anyone be an entrepreneur? – YES

Entrepreneur is the one who is passionate, willing to sacrifice, serve many millions of people, create value, bring a change in this world and definitely an outlaw, a rules breaker and the one who never bends to his boss and definitely sees job as an anti-success opportunity.

Let me ask you this – Are YOU an Entrepreneur?

I am going to share with you all my story that I have never shared with anyone until now.

You may have read many stories about how an employee quit his high paying job and took on the entrepreneurship plunge etc.,. I am not going to reprise it here again.

I will share with you something more important. At the end of this brief read, I hope to leave you to make the right decision.

1. Why I joined SLP?

Indeed I quit my job just when I got married and the first lesson I learnt was that “Starting up is 10 times tougher than what I had estimated to be the tough case scenario”. We were 7 of us initially when we started. Although we had built the product, at one point of time it was just me and my co-founder (also my childhood friend) left in our startup. Everyone else in the cofounding team had quit on us and had taken up a job succumbing to the comfort of their choices.

Bootstrapped, broke, betrayed – these three words best describe my state then. My family, my wife, was my best support – but who would I turn to advice, help, for directions, to make those tough decisions? Who would tell me that all this is a part of the game and with every difficulty, obstacle that I would overcome, I would grow as a person, as an entrepreneur and thus be one step close towards realizing my dream?
All we knew, as starters, was building a product. What we did not know was about – systematic scaling, selling, fundraising, analyzing, organizing, resolving etc., these important elements of starting up were not even in the radar, or in other words, we were contemplating and did not know the right from the wrong.

That was a time I learnt about Startup Leadership Program, they said it’s a family, tough to get in, tough to complete it. I am lucky I made it, however, it was so much fun and so much value. It changed who I was and thereby how I am today.

To know how to fail, to mirror your ideas worthiness, to fightback and to gain clarity – you have to join this program.

2. What is needed to join this program?

In my opinion you need two things to first get into the program and successfully complete it. First you need to be passionately persistent about entrepreneurship, about what you want to solve and how you want to make this world a better place with your idea. Secondly you need is humility, to respect every aspect of the journey and embrace from it.

Go hard or go home:

This is no summer camp, as much as its fun, it’s equally rigorous. It has to be, otherwise how else can it be a life altering program? You are accountable to everything about yourself, you end up taking responsibility and the best part – you run this program as if it is of your own on an assigned day as a CEO or a Co-CEO.

3. What did I learn from SLP?

The list is so exhaustive that I can’t list it all here, you may even take a look at the syllabus. But I want to stress on this that – it’s not like any other program where you earn a fellowship, graduate and end of story. Once a SLPian is always a SLPian, he continuously learns, shares his learning, applies himself for to create a better world and in the process you remain a part of the uber cool global SLP family.

In a nutshell, I’d like to say I learnt about the journey ahead, about facing difficult times, about values and most importantly I saw in the mirror and had my moment of self-realization.

We learnt everything that is there in books about starting up, starting from LEAN, BMC, Financial modeling, Revenue modeling, Leadership, Team building, fund raising, Legal aspects, best practices, validations, M&A and so much more.  I met many industry leaders, fellow entrepreneurs, classmates and learnt precious lessons.

4. Did it make a difference?

Have you heard this “Clarity breeds Mastery”? The more clear you are about things, in other words, the more you know anything better, the more your chances are of getting it. That clarity is what I gained from this program if I had to sum it up all in one word plus the perks of being a part of the super SLP family.

SLP has made a tangible and an intangible difference. This program has changed my perspective and in a way my whole life. Intangible things that I learnt specifically at SLP are – I wake up early, I am always on time to any meeting or an event, I make the most out of weekends, I read, I share, I learn and help more people than ever before.

As far as Adom goes, we are now a team of 9, we won 5 national awards, 1 international event in New York, we got a letter of appreciation from embassy of Israel, we are very close to finishing a round of investment, we now have our presence in 5 cities in India and a brand has steadily been built. We serve to thousands of users nationwide and thus see our value by virtue of our customer. We aim to become a global organization and what stays as a constant is the SLP class of 2015 Hyderabad and the SLP family worldwide who help out, guide and stay with us in the hour of need. I will forever remain grateful to what SLP has been.

Everytime I see a list of successful startups, I notice 40% of them are SLPian based startup. It’s no surprise when I go to an international event; I meet new people who are fellow SLPians. There is so much value in this program, that it surprises me that SLP is a not-for-profit institution.

It’s not about ideas; it’s about making ideas happen. It’s not about starting up; it’s about going through the journey. Like the saying goes, “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now”. If you want to change the world and want to do so in the right way, the best way, it’s the SLP-way.

You can Apply here for the upcoming batch of 2017: https://www.f6s.com/slp-hyderabad2017/apply

Image Courtesy: Entrepreneur.com

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