The Rainbow Is The Gold

There was a deluge of mail after the (I am told) notorious F--- You Money column. A lot of you told me your own stories of FYMity.

The most touching was one gent who wrote describing his not-so-successful travails at entrepreneurship-and how, many years later, he is still far behind his IIM colleagues who graduated with him. You, Sir, wondered if you had taken the right decision to strike out on your own. After all, your peers were earning substantially more at supposedly key jobs around the world. You had the courage to re-look at your own life and ask that question.

Now I am no counsellor. There is no guarantee that entrepreneurship will succeed and result in a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow - just as there is none that your job will amount to much, especially in these times when no job is 'safe', including the ones in the public sector.

But the theme that came through a lot of your mail was "what am I going to get for all of the risk of splitting off on my own?" Almost universally, a lot of the mail seemed to come from people who had done their MBAs, and were 'benchmarking' themselves against others in their batch as an indicator of where they should be.

I think one basic disconnect is the MBA itself. In most places around the world, it is an education desired by people who want to take risks and run businesses. Among us Indians though, it seems to be the opposite - it's a tool to de-risk, and become better-paid employees - i.e., to become more of a slave than a master of business administration.

Back to the pot of gold that everyone seems to want. I used to define success that way too - by the amount I earned, and wanted to earn. Those goals grew - from six figures in rupees to six figures in dollars to... to well, whatever Fortune said people were earning.

I soon discovered two constraints. One, that it was stupid working for 11.5 months to get two weeks off.

Two, that beyond a point, most of my income got eaten up in taxes - and that I really didn't care for a Ferrari or a Lear Jet, and was happy at one 'post-tax steady state' point. I really wanted more time for the things I cared about: my family, friends, travel, reading and music. The more I met high-earning types, the more it seemed to me that there was more peace in my life than in theirs.

So I structured subsequent raises around more time off, rather than more money. As a self-employed guy, I am pushing that further: Can I now work four months a year, take eight months off, and make the same 'steady state' amount? Actually, I think I can.

This also gives me the luxury of picking and choosing what I'd like to do - so even those few months of working are at something I like - as opposed to something that pays me a lot to do crappy maintenance work, like many of my friends in FMCG companies confess they do.

I have a very different view of the pot of gold I am supposed to find at the end of that rainbow: I really don't think it exists. What's at the end of the rainbow? We all die. That's not exactly gold.

To me, the rainbow itself is the pot of gold. The journey itself, with a nod to Jerry Garcia, is the destination.

I'd rather be short-sighted, look at my today, make sure it's the best I can have, and not make sacrifices for some mythical tomorrow that is supposed to be better. I have no idea what tomorrow will be like - and I don't think anybody else does either.

I am also reasonably sure that if a pot of gold accidentally happens somewhere along the way, it really isn't going to change that rainbow very much.

To the gentleman who wasn't sure if he should regret starting up as he was earning less: perhaps you could look at the life and times you've had as an entrepreneur. It's not likely that any of your benchmarked colleagues has been through that.

It may even be that they envy you, as you are following your dream. While they may just be running in some meaningless race for salaries with other benchmarkees.