Driven By Passion

India has always had a strong tradition of entrepreneurship. Every big business in the country today can trace its origins to an entrepreneur or a group of entrepreneurs who forsake the path of safety  and took on significant risks in order to follow their dreams. They created industrial and service empires by coming up with great ideas, persevering against all odds, and by looking at life a bit differently from the run- of-the-mill manager.

What India lacked till recently was a formal ecosystem to help entrepreneurship flourish. Till about a decade ago, India did not have a thriving venture capital industry or systems to incubate new entrepreneurs or even formal channels to provide mentoring to bright young men and women looking to strike out on their own. In the old days, an informal ecosystem often existed, but they were largely community based and could, therefore, help only a few entrepreneurs. Today, a formal ecosystem is slowly being built, though there is still a long way to go.


An ecosystem is very necessary, but it is by no means the most critical factor for entrepreneurial success.
Entrepreneurs are of a special class, and it is their ability to take enormous risks without worrying about safety nets that sets them apart. Every one of them could have chosen a far safer — and perhaps in the short run, more lucrative — profession but chose not to do so. It is passion that drives them rather than ordinary motivators such as money or social standing.