OK, let me admit. I am not sure if you can call anything a fringe benefit of being an entrepreneur, simply because entrepreneurship is so very different from the destination-after-a-long-journey model that you cannot classify the benefits as principal and fringe.

I, however, would persist with the word to signify that this set of benefits is distinct from what we typically imagine as the benefits of entrepreneurship to the entrepreneur.

Also, some of what follows might talk about stereotypes. This, in no way implies that all Chopra Jis or all government officials are what the stereotypes describe.

Now, getting down to the business:

a) Every now and then, you get to pamper the geek in you:

Whenever you have to explore a new technology to customize it to bring maximum benefit to your customers at minimum effort on their part, you have to delve deep into it. One week you are racking your brains hard over PHP-MySql code snippets while the other, you might be sweating over new VoIP tools or rich media technology.

Not that that’s a requirement, not that you don’t have a team to do that - just that you have a hardcore nerd somewhere in you who doesn’t want to let go of the opportunity to deal with something tech; hands-on, yes but if that energizes you and helps enhance the value to the customer, so be it.

b) Negotiating with Chopra Ji for reduction in the advance for his for-rent office premises

Chopra Ji is a generic name. He could be any of the Kalra Jis, Malhotra Jis or Kaul Sahibs. Bottomline is, he is a hardnosed business man who earned his spurs either in real estate deals or with government officials over a government building electrification tender or Karol Bagh traders. He would typically be noisy though sweet talking and loves the sight of cash more than anything. Not one to give any quarters, its a thrill to get him to agree for a less than the norm upfront security amount.

c) Dealing with the government Sahibs

Yes. He would be an official in a government agency to promote entrepreneurship in IT/ITeS or a Director with a government backed finance corporation. With all the trappings of a something-important-happens-here office, what with the AC (instead of the ubiquitous noisy cooler you would associate with a government department), the visitor tag and three layers of solemn looking security guards to be satisfied before you get to see the god once, the ambience of serious business is right there.

The god would be a gutkha chewing middle aged man with a huge drawl and a somnolent demeanor. He is authorized to judge the merits of your business projections not because he is an expert in technology business, or an experienced hat but because some 10 years back, the government decided it had to promote entrepreneurship in IT/ITes so there had to be a department and a slew of officials and by some twist of events, he happens to be sitting on the chair which is somehow believed to bestow the power of discernment and the authority of decision making on to its occupant.

Typically however, they are well meaning people and as long as they believe they are getting the respect they deserve by the virtue of being a government babu, they will not create serious hindrances and may even facilitate a couple things for you. Nevertheless, its a pleasure you know only when you experience it.

d) Playing Big Brother to your team

This could range from developing their career plans with them, helping out in a personal crisis to playing angry young Amitabh Bachchan to get the critically ailing new born of your office staff member admitted to the only speciality government hospital with the equipment necessary to treat him. Of course, the real payout in the last example is when the kid returns from the hospital hail and hearty. All smiles.

e) Thinking like a navigator

Here is the map and here is where we want to go. We will take this route, reach the hills there, cross the jungle to the left, swim across the river and reach the destination. Strategic thinking, if you will.

Only, in entrepreneurship, the hills, jungles, rivers, brooks and planes keep changing their locations as well as their forms. So, if you plan for a river, followed by a hill followed by a tunnel and then, let go of the sight of the map, you might realize that the river has actually become a jungle by the time you reached there. Therefore, you need to keep refreshing the map continuously.

Now, wouldn’t being an explorer in a land which keeps changing every so often that you just cannot “plan and forget” be great fun?

f) Thinking like a mechanic

Lets switch the analogy now. Instead of crossing rivers and jungles, lets now be sailors in the high seas. Also lets assume being a Captain, you are doing a good job of navigating the ship and keeping track of the changing map.

However, you need to make sure that all engines, levers, hulls even the nuts and bolts are working fine. So, while you need to keep an eye on the map and the road (err, water) ahead, you also need to keep your ears open to any unnatural humming which may indicate your machinery is not working as it should.

g) Picking yourself and rebuilding piece by piece

Some days would be frustrating. Things might take longer to happen, a big customer would take longer to close or it would just be one of those blue-days. No worries, just grit your teeth, clench your fists and plough on.

Rock on. That’s the mantra.

It gives me great pleasure to share that eTutelage has been nominated in TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards, link here, but more than that, the support of our friends and well wishers has been overwhelming.

We are getting good wishes and congratulatory messages from far off friends, peers, old classmates, friends of friends, eTutelage team mates, site visitors and customers. It is an overwhelming feeling and we are savoring every moment of it - more so because entrepreneurship can be painfully lonely at times.

Thanks everyone for your support. It means a lot to us all and it gives us the strength and conviction to plough along when the going gets tough.

For those of you who haven’t already voted, voting is on, you can either go online and vote or send HOT 374 to 56767 through your mobile phones.

A different nature of post but it’s tough to continue remaining silent.

Another round of serial blasts in Delhi - human blood and flesh on the streets, severed limbs, wailing women. Strong condemnation from the PM and the powers that be. “It’s a dastardly act”, yeah, so insightful. “The perpetrators will not be spared”, yeah right. Can we ask Mr Prime Minister which jail are the perpetrators of the earlier bomb blasts being punished in.

The pattern is so predictable, it’s sickening. People die, PM whimpers a condemnation and then everything goes back to normal. Till we have another set of serial blasts.

And then, to add insult to the injury, they talk about the “Spirit of Delhi (or Mumbai or Ahmedabad or Bangalore or Jaipur)”. The truth of the spirit is that people have no choice but to resume their normal activities to earn their livelihood, get by and complete their share of their personal and professional obligations, duties and responsibilities. They have no other option. If I have a business meeting in Cannaught Place, I have to go there, knowing fully well that if the terrorists have decided it to be the day of mayhem, I could be one of the casualties. It’s not spirit, it’s helplessness.

Whether you like Bush’s policies or not, whether you like America or not, you have to agree that the cavemen have not been able to do anything on American soil ever since 9/11. More than a couple lessons to be learnt on how to tackle homeland security.

Compare this with India, we are probably the only country which does not have an anti terror law despite being one of the top most victims of terrorism. Not just that, the government fiercely opposes any proposal to bring in any such laws - the center’s refusal to ok Gujarat anti terror law a very recent example.

Several prominent members of the PM’s cabinet actively support the organization everybody knows to be behind these acts of terror, “It’s a cultural organization”. Correct. Now will you, Mr Minister, care enough to explain what kind of culture espouses exploding bombs in crowded places? I guess not because people who get killed and will get killed in the blasts to come will never be of your kin.

The nuclear deal is done. The surging economy, the India miracle, superpower by 2020 - a whole lot of you-know-what. No one is going to respect us as a country if we cannot protect our people, if we continue being a corpse collector whether it is the embassy in Kabul or markets in Delhi or temples in Jaipur. We can never be a a super power as long as it is so ridiculously easy to kill us.

Another word often bandied about whenever these blasts happen is “the people’s resilience”. Resilience, my friend, is to get up when hit and reply in the same coin. Resilience is not getting hit again and again and wiping the blood only to be bloodied again. Resilience is not picking one tooth from the road only to have another one punched out.

Platitudes don’t help Mr Singh, action does. Tough action.

Real people are dying here. Families are being destroyed. Kids’ futures are being ruined. Are you going to wait till eternity to do something apart from throwing banalities? Or is it that our worst fears are true, these deaths don’t matter to you, these people don’t count?

An innovative offering from eTutelage is in the final stages of development. This new service is designed to be an enormously useful tool for students preparing for ACT and SAT. The beta version will be out soon.

Watch this space for more updates!!!

Yes, there are a few of them, Richard Branson and Jonathan Shwartz amongst those well known, but why do long hair find so little favor with business leaders? Is it because the 60’s have conditioned us to associate long hair with rock and roll and hippies or is it because the prospect of maintaining a heavier mane is too time consuming for the jet setting brigade. Is it because long hair denote the recklessness and rebelliousness of a college kid rather than the gravity of a corporate boss responsible for top and bottom-lines and chairing board meetings.

Got a tough business situation - be creative, be innovative. Don’t let the straitjacket of established thought blind you to the newer possibilities. Think out of the box. Yeah, right. But when it comes to how you look, well, look exactly like 10,000 other people do in pinstriped suits swarming the boardrooms, the world over.

Dichotomy, yes. Why? You tell me, and, that’s not the only dichotomy here.

The effect of America on global business is ubiquitous and America is known for the freedom to be yourself. Then why does corporate America or, for that matter, corporate world has so little room for some of its most competent, effective, innovative and yes, powerful inhabitants to be themselves in the context of personal appearance. Or are we trying to suggest that so many of the global business leaders, all strong willed individuals and most of them innovative in their own ways think exactly the same when it comes to their hair length?

The usual refrain is that while you may be ok with it, the guy across the table, be it an investor or a major shareholder or a board member may find you less than reliable/serious if your hair style matches with that of the rock star he saw head-banging last night on tube, screaming his vocal chords out with fingers moving frenziedly over guitar strings. The logic is not without merit. The environment does condition us to think about certain things in certain ways and howsoever rational we are, environmental conditioning does creep in during decision making.

Yes, there is individual freedom but then, there are shareholders, board members and investors who are as human as the rest of us, warts and all. Better safe than sorry!!!

Meanwhile, people like me who lead a business along with maintaining long hair hope that that all important investor did not see a rock concert last night !!!