Don’t Get Bullied By Your Own Ideas!
September 29, 2009 by Chris
Filed under Leadership Skills
Quite an interesting title, isn’t it? But this is the scenario today where thousands of individuals raise money for their businesses only to get bullied by their very own investors at the end because just that, idea didn’t work but I can understand you perfectly well, as an entrepreneur there are lots of ups and downs till you reach your final destination. A funded start up is always demanding from its deepest core since the time of inception to the growing process and the final delivery process, as much as investors are looking for profits from the venture, you try to achieve to the fullest that is possible from your end but what if the idea itself doesn’t work. This may happen because there was no proper marketing mix, probably the idea was out dated, or may be your customers were finding it costly, there can be N number of reasons you can state for your failure.
Some people think that if they rake in good number of investors in their company either from joint venture or selling the stakes in the companies, it is good sign of success. Then I think, they are highly mistaken for the fact, that most of take over happen because company is facing turbulent times, now there are again 2 possibilities, investor may come in due to his personal interest or simply want to help the company but the profit motive always remains. A person’s hard earned money is always the biggest risk individuals take while investing in risky businesses especially when it has no profits or shown downward spiral.
Sometimes, when you get investments coming to your company, you are easily excited about getting money and starting with few more ventures but you really miss to know, that it can really become hard for you in the future as most of the times even when its your idea of a particular business or marketing tactics to be used for product, there are investors who make major decisions of the company and that really bites your nerves. You have to do as per their wish only because they are the investors! Now that may or may not get consumed by many individuals, though you can always proceed towards achieving your goals tactfully even when they are against your decisions.

I had been attending so many conferences and workshops about entrepreneurship, take over, joint ventures and many more, the end point that they discussed was are investors really be allowed to take company decisions when they really don’t know anything of the process they have invested in, let some things be left to the individuals who are actually experts in it. The idea here is not to get bullied by your own people may it be your investors, your colleagues, your partners. If you are wrong, they can surely pin point anything. My advice to you is, use your ideas in a more receptive manner and make them understand if they don’t agree with you. Sometimes even the majority decision taken in a company fails due to improper project report or lack of judgment matter or due to peer pressure – juniors follow their seniors blindly without thinking logically.

An idea comes to a person only when he can think rationally, logically and practically. Although it fails sometimes but not always as, “Failures are stepping stone to success”, no one gets success without facing the failure and as time moves on you tend to learn by your own mistakes, you made as a young entrepreneur. Experience is all it wants, make proper study reports, presentations, market research, individual customer data and company financial data of a company – after analyzing all of these you can proceed ahead to fetch in investors and this will make sure that no investors ever bullies or surround you next time. Prepare yourself for all types of possible questions, give them the answers in a very quiet and dignified manner and you will never miss to win their hearts!











