Officially Yes, Personally No - I

There are many instances I recall when I had to take calls where either decisions lead with my back against the wall. May it be the decision of restructuring happening in Energy Labs or investing in new ventures where I had no operational experience whatsoever. The thing that sets in motion to such decisions is never under control of the decision maker. And those decisions are often termed as better judgement. When the rewards are green, people tend to bring in all shades of flowery praises but in case of bad calls, they are not even present to criticise you. 

Having realized this the hard way, when Swaraksha was on the launch pads and just a push of button away, not a single member of my board was approving except me. In fact they were so paranoid that it lead to their continuing distance from Energy Labs. Even after all commitments were made to all the right and powerful people, they were sitting back and trying to spin all the negative wheels. Still somehow I managed and with few supporters who had no choice but to go forward with it got to enjoy my undisputed support all along the way ahead since we got a rock star success on our first market product. 

That blind support eventually lead to the destruction of the next product though. And this time no one is being spotted to take the blame for it. May that be wasting of time, resources or sheer stupidity to feel that they had extra veto powers they took the coward's way to push themselves out of the door. And this applied to mostly the people who had been there since day one. Because they felt I owed them something which was not the case, things didn't work out. And for the first time, when we could have earned actual monopoly over something, foolishness and taking things for granted screwed everything up. 

When doing business, you ought to keep emotions at home. In order to excel, there is no other way than being ruthless. A person's ruthlessness can only be seen or judged by another who possess it. It's not a call for kids to judge a person and his actions when actually they are just sitting in the background doing nothing. Its like watching news channel debates on whether we should go to war with our neighbouring countries when they have no idea what actually is the situation there. 

My advice to my fellow business owners is to not waver from their officially yes and personally no decisions since personal feelings have no place on a boardroom table. Do what you have to do and don't hesitate to kick anyone out just because you feel you owe them. Maintaining relations is important but not at the cost of work where you could have actually made a difference. What would be my next officially yes step, I would share in the next post.