Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks

by Alok Kejriwal

As parents, we must remember that our conduct, fears, aspirations, prejudices, desires, and preferences all get passed on to our children. Even when things may not be going well, we must try and not expose our paranoias and deep-seated regrets to our children.

I believe that we must expose our kids to our best side as much as possible. Our worst fears must stay hidden within us. We must deal with them, of course, but quietly.

I believe that entrepreneurs must learn business development and sales skills early in their careers. Generating business needs passion and drive. The salient process of sales must be experienced first-hand by an entrepreneur, and not delegated to someone else. I believe that a market is available to anyone who has the persistence to keep knocking on doors and asking for business. The simple lesson I learned was that business begins to happen when you work towards activating it.

while mistakes are made by the young, the mature should forgive. This is exactly how bullying happens in real life and this often causes hurt and long-term pain.

As adults, we must be cautious as to how we correct our children and young colleagues, so as to improve them without impairing them. After the incident, I made it a point to learn and imbibe business manners, etiquette and the essential rules of business engagement. The more significant lesson I learned was that the busiest, most successful people in the world are available to help others if approached. All that one has to do is ask! Entrepreneurs thrive best when they regularly connect with accomplished people who can mentor and guide them. There are mentors out there waiting for you to ask them for help.

(LCs and bill discounting are financial instruments in which corporates who are due to receive an assured sum of money from other corporates can instantly encash their debts for a small discount or fee from reputed banks.)

business was about connecting the dots between opportunities and people. ‘Dhandha’ (business) could be found anywhere—be it under the trees of the racecourse or in the yards of rundown godowns. An entrepreneur could do anything, anywhere, as long as he had the will!

If you are a parent, don’t discourage your children from trying their hand at a simple startup such as operating a YouTube channel or selling goods through social media channels. A small, harmless venture will give them many valuable, real-world insights about business.

If you are a young person interested in becoming an entrepreneur, do think about starting a simple service or enterprise that might help you understand the basics of doing business. Many millennials nowadays launch small online advertising, social media and app development services startups. By the time you graduate, you will learn something about most of the pitfalls of business without losing time or money. Whatever business you want to pursue, try and spot a real problem (like the IPO refund issue I identified) and build a solution around it.

The ‘kick’ to trade seemed to be the more significant motivation for me than the small profits or losses I would make.

active stock trading is for losers.

My Nana’s portfolio performance made me understand that doing nothing was doing everything.

My crazy stock trading days and the losses I suffered instilled a profound learning and realisation in me that there is no ‘easy money’ in this world. If it comes easy, it will go away even easier.

My stock analysis of Jindal Iron and Steel taught me that it takes a vast amount of time, patience and application to understand a business and its operations.

wealth gets created with patience and perseverance . . . and some good luck! And one more thing: strategically doing nothing is doing something too!

any business associate or a person inherently deceitful or untruthful is not worth being involved with at all. If you get used to cheating and manipulating people and businesses for quick, selfish gains, it quickly becomes your nature.

by pursuing pure, unadulterated businesses, an entrepreneur can get the best out of himself and his team and the goal of the enterprise then becomes the search for excellence, not the management of lies.

Sitting quietly taught me the value of patience and the power of observation. I realised how important it was to inculcate the discipline of self-learning to become adept at business and develop an expertise. I realised that while books, schools, teachers and professors do teach you many things, learning does not end when your stint in an educational institution ends.

There is an inexhaustible reservoir of lifelong lessons a person can imbibe by just being aware, and by asking the eternal questions of why, when, what, who and where, as often as possible. This is the framework I adopted to learn everything about my father’s factory. My interaction with the workers exposed me to the importance of ethics, values and responsibility and also how it was critical to be able to live up to the trust that people so often blindly placed in us.

profitability per stock keeping unit (SKU)

I learned the fine art of costing through this very intensive exercise. The hard work to calculate costs to their minutest levels and to then allocate them for each sock we manufactured made me adept at costing and therefore, at deciding the pricing of products. I firmly believe that every business must be broken down into the atomic details of its costs. The most critical metric entrepreneurs must know is the margin (profit) on what they sell, and that can only happen when they know their costs. I insist that entrepreneurs must understand their business costs as intimately as possible and not just rely on accountants to figure out or advise them. Costing is the lifeline of a business and must be appropriated, reviewed and actioned upon by the owner and founder directly.

the concept of the sales funnel and the typically poor conversion rates associated with it.

I believe that for an entrepreneur, awareness of macro and micro business matters is very critical. Entrepreneurs must always have their ears on the ground, looking for signals and developments around them, to seize a business opportunity. With this very discipline, I spotted a chance in the devaluation of the rupee and acted upon it, even though this event had no direct correlation with my business. While trying very hard to get my first business order, I learnt about the tough grind of business development. A lot of backbreaking work, patience and persistence is required when you are trying to sell something. You can multiply that effort many times when you are trying to sell something that has never been sold before. A successful sale can sometimes even take years and frustrate the most optimistic of sellers. Having infinite patience to sell is a critical lesson for startup entrepreneurs.

I learned to persist at things even when people thought they couldn’t be done; to be tenacious and to persevere while chasing an outcome; to be able to source, invent, research, manage and optimise resources and people. I learned not to feel let down by negativity, naysayers, and disbelievers. A thumb rule I came up with through this experience is that a startup entrepreneur will need to do at least ‘x’ number of unique things never done before by him or the world, before succeeding in his/her startup. That x number is his/her age when he/she starts up.

I realised very early in my career that there could be no compromise with honesty. Being correct was not even half as good as being truthful. I learned that respect and trust are won by being frank and honest. And when you have trust, respect and belief, there is no looking back at anything you do. I would urge everyone reading this to never compromise on morals and ethics, no matter what the situation may be. If you are confused, your conscience will always point you to the correct decision. Just be conscientious, and the rest will happen for the best. Another critical lesson I learned from this incident is that partners, clients, associates, indeed whoever trusts you, always expect you to be entirely transparent and forthcoming about business matters, no matter how costly, ruinous or heartbreaking the information may be. Keep them informed and never feel hesitant in updating them about adverse developments. Bad times never last. Honest people always do.

My success with baby socks taught me that an entrepreneur must constantly do things to improve his margins in business. I learned how simple, yet accurate observations of the marketplace could be leveraged to improve business profitability. I realised that understanding my client’s margins was as crucial as knowing my own. Constantly visiting retail stores gave me the opportunity to observe consumer psychology and this played a vital role in our product development process. Making my baby socks ‘stand up’ taught me the importance of presentation and packaging that went beyond just making great products. ‘Seeing is believing and believing is buying’ became my sales rule. Often, lots of people in the world make high-quality goods, but it’s the superior marketeer and presenter who bags the order. Also, the conversation about baby saliva taught me the concept of in-depth risk forecasting and the importance of coming up with strategies to mitigate those risks.

I learned that being overconfident is the best way to self-destruct. Also, I painfully realised that a single act of greed could kill a super-successful business. In the life of an entrepreneur, many opportunities present themselves, and each one must be evaluated meticulously before being accepted or rejected. I learned there is no need to say ‘yes’ on the spot in any situation, be it business or personal. On the positive side, my relentless pursuit to accomplish what I had set out to achieve, my ability to motivate my partners to collaborate with me and my willpower to keep re-calibrating processes till I got it right taught me that anything was possible if one had the will and the intent. This incident unleashed the power of supreme belief and a sense of deep accomplishment in me. Entrepreneurs must go through such trying times to discover how strong they are!

most hosiery entrepreneurs in Europe were trained engineers and mechanics who knew their machines inside out. They worked on the shop floor with their workers, and technicians and their in-depth technical knowledge also helped them innovate new products.

The incident taught me to rise above insults and instead use the occasion to introspect and to take action. When my relatives were making fun of me, I realised that some mindsets could perhaps never change. But as a businessman who sought to grow his business, I had to learn to ignore such people. I realised that all I needed to do was to follow my heart and do everything in my capacity to get better at my business and trade.

appreciate the adage: God is in the details.

if an entrepreneur had to succeed, he had to get into the microscopic details of everything.

appreciate the principle of ‘dirtying my fingernails’ to stay...

without getting into the micro, there was no way I could manage the macro. The other big lesson I learned was to curate, cultivate and unleash curiosity and always to try and keep learning new things.

I would implore you to develop curiosity as a serious habit. It could become your passport to success.

Each entrepreneur comes across a profound, personal moment of calling—when leaving behind the past and starting out and doing one’s own thing seems to be the only logical way ahead. I would implore readers never to ignore that calling irrespective of how difficult or impossible the occasion appears. In those moments of utter despair, you need to have a firm resolve, and take a single step forward, with a prayer in your heart. The rest happens magically.

As an entrepreneur, I have learned that we have to deal with toxic people and situations and develop the ability to tolerate them to get on with our lives. But there comes a time when you want to break free. I have realised that the intent to gain freedom is of paramount importance. Feeling sorry for yourself and living in self-pity are counter-productive.

A critical lesson of this story for me is the importance and benefit of meeting people. By going to that party and mingling with friends, I found that spark of inspiration because of which I began to think in terms of starting an internet business. It’s comfortable and convenient to skip events, meetings and boring parties and stay comfortably at home, but often, it’s in those places that bright ideas germinate in your mind while interacting with people. I firmly believe that entrepreneurs and professionals must meet at least one new person daily in their lives. It does not matter what the agenda is or how the discussion pans out. I have met over seven thousand people so far and have learned something unique from every one of them! Another valuable lesson I learned that while every idea of an entrepreneur is fascinating, it is also crucial to process each idea carefully and beat it down as hard as possible, to find potential flaws and defects. An entrepreneur must play devil’s advocate to each of his plans to test their strength and viability. If the idea still wins, it’s a green signal for the entrepreneur to go ahead.

I have come to realise that sometimes, luck and providence come directly to your doorstep and yet the untrained mind chooses to close the door on them.

‘Satyam Param Dimahi’. It means ‘May the transcendental truth dawn on your intellect.’

being proactive and initiating the execution of an idea. I’ve noticed that while many of us think of ideas, (some genuinely brilliant), very few of us do something about them. We all procrastinate, delay taking action and then painfully watch our great ideas become someone else’s successful business. You have to get up, get out, do something and just get started. Also, another learning is to leverage the people you meet, to achieve your goals, in the same way that I leveraged Gopala Krishna to help me create my website. All you need to do is connect the dots!

My inability to connect to the right people was entirely my fault. The minute someone picked up my call, I would ramble about my internet idea, without stating the purpose or benefit of my company and service. The person on the other end of the call would not understand what I was trying to say and would sometimes just disconnect the line.

I learned that to get a new business off the ground, it takes hard, gruelling, undying, maniacal effort. Every deal in the initial years felt as if I was physically pushing a large airplane from the rear and building speed for it to take off. In my case, I realised that as an entrepreneur trying to solve a new, unfamiliar problem, it was imperative to do lots of research on the industry I was trying to enter. Ideally, I should have familiarised myself with how the industry worked instead of running around like a headless chicken, just making random calls. When I had terrible days as I often did, I felt deficient and regretted not having a better education such as an MBA. On the positive side, I learned that no matter how uninitiated an entrepreneur is in a new business, one can win customers by focusing on innovation and actual problem-solving. The best lesson I learned from my HLL experience was that even while swimming in an ocean of sceptics and nonbelievers, I persisted in trying to find someone who would believe in me and throw me a lifeline!

The biggest lesson I learned was to be prudent, practical and street-smart while pitching a business proposition. Many entrepreneurs I knew could not accept giving away their products and service for free. I fought that mindset and did the opposite. The advantage of starting out as a free service meant that I did not have any critical deliverables to be held accountable for. Who would demand anything from something that came complimentary? For many months, contests2win was a free service that partnered with the world’s greatest brands, without having to live up to their stringent expectations or asked to deliver an ROI (Return on Investment) because really, there was no ‘I’—Investment! This amazing relationship allowed me to perfect my business, create a deep value proposition for clients and build a great brand for myself. I mastered the art of ‘piggyback value creation’. Another deep lesson was understanding the psychological drivers of a business (which exist in every business) and leveraging them to the fullest. In my case, it was the lure of ‘free’. Free prizes made consumers go crazy, and they visited my site very frequently looking for free prizes. Soon online contest on contests2win.com had become a habit. And a habit, as I would figure out, was the foundation of a super-successful business model.

if you spend quality time with your clients and consumers, they will point you to what they are looking for. All you have to do is remain super-alert and aware. Often their rebukes and excuses not to do business with you will tell you what you need to do! Another valuable lesson I learned was the value of patience and to be an unapologetic seeker of business. I say this without a hint of embarrassment. If you want to create something unique and valuable, you will have to learn to please and seek. It’s a cruel trade-off between your ego and your ambition. You must have the ability to wait endlessly outside people’s doors waiting for them to call you inside. It feels humiliating but it is the price you have to pay for enjoying eternal glory.

‘All good things in life take time’ is the tenet I live by. One has to first learn to wait and watch. The win will come in time.

when an entrepreneur starts to do good work, there are many people including some silent ones who notice. These are the people who will reach out to you proactively to guide, mentor and support you. Just keeping doing good work and the angels will come. I was also blessed to experience that miracles do happen in businesses when you least expect them.

Trust me when I say that when an entrepreneur starts doing something innovative, disruptive and compelling, capital begins to chase the entrepreneur, as opposed to the entrepreneur having to chase capital earlier. There are billions of dollars sitting idle with investors all over the world, all waiting for the ideal entrepreneur with a solid business idea.

how crucial it was for the entrepreneur to narrate an immersive story, present a detailed, meaningful business plan and to be able to sell himself as much as his business while attempting to raise money. As the years have unfolded, I have learned how important it is for an entrepreneur to choose his investors wisely. That decision should be treated with the same care and sensitivity as when selecting a spouse. VC stands for Venture Capital, but it could well mean Vapour Capital, Vulture Capital and Vampire Capital. It is important for the entrepreneur to choose a VC with the utmost prudence.

Having experienced several meetings that did not go well, I had learned a hard lesson that mumbling stupid answers was worse than keeping quiet.

top-notch VCs provide tons of strategic guidance, hiring insights, connections, and business assistance that far outweighs the money they invest in an entrepreneur’s startup.