A pleasant meeting with a Rodinhooder – Atinderpal Saini
A few days ago I met with a fellow rodinhooder. I had posted a job posting on Rodinhoods, and received only one response from this person. Our conversation went on and we decided to meet at Phoenix mills, Mumbai.
The night of the meeting came and I was pleasantly surprised. It felt like dejavu. As our conversation progressed, my mind began to wander. My mind just kept drawing comparisons between him and me. We both had our own educations and our own jobs (at one point). But there was still something so similar between him and me that I just found it hard to focus on our conversation at hand.
Atinder, like me, had a well-paying job that he and everyone around him can be proud of. He, like me, out-performed at his job in a short time while he was there. But still – He, like me, could not help feel suffocated in his current job. He was contemplating making the same decision I had made a few months ago – quitting a well-paid job to become an entrepreneur (a penniless one). We both had our own family businesses we could have easily gone to, but we both wanted to be different (some may even call it foolish).
This is why my mind was wandering. It was the first time I had actually realized how similar Entrepreneurs are.
How Entrepreneurship is sometimes born from our need – 1. To do something more challenging 2. To not follow the rules society has set for us 3. To excel, to take risks, to be care-free and to be crazy instead of doing what’s asked of us and making safer bets.
We usually know such things but when you actually feel that connection to other fellow Entrepreneurs, it is automatically a stimulus. It has a certain vibrancy which makes you feel that you are not alone. That what you are doing is not crazy. It is just you trying to find happiness in your own way.
This is the vibrancy I think the Rodinhoods forum and open houses have. It is this pure form of positive energy that is passed on from Alok, Asha, and everyone sitting besides you in these open houses that encourage you to keep going. In the words of Zuckerberg to: ‘Stay Focused, and Keep Shipping.’ Hence, if you are an entrepreneur, I would encourage you to attend these meetups. Maybe even set up a meeting with others outside of these meetups (ping me at anytime).
Another small note –
I mentioned this to Atinder and I would like to say it again. It is hard! I quit my job in New York a few months ago and moved to Bombay to pursue my dreams. The environment here is different, the challenges are different, the way of doing business is different and the mindset is different. So before you quit your job like I did, just be prepared. If you can work 5 more hours everyday on your idea while doing your job alongside, do that first, get some success, before you quit. But when you quit, don’t look back.
Good luck!