Greetings to my fellow students and faculty blogging/viewing this site.

Prof Zak screened the video about water access and 5 local solutions last week. It profiled this organization that installed the meters that measure use and track users in Western India.
I found this very inspiring talk online and wanted to share the perspective of Mr. Anand Shah, CEO of Sarvajal, touching upon core values of social enterprise, generating ideas for action as well as his suggestions on starting up. It is in three parts. He is speaking to some audience in India and occasionally speaks in Hindi. I rupee = approx 2c and 1 crore=10 million

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AR8xZu2w5c&feature=endscreen&NR=1


Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=422eTBlIyAc&feature=related

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HukHQDMm7Eg&feature=related

Here is what I learned about entrepreneurship - it is not a 'job' - persistence pays and Edison's 99% perspiration applies to each step .

Entrepreneurship and Risk

The college where I did my undergrad in India misused the word "Disciplined" so much that I somehow tend to refer it to it as something which is ideal and not attainable and hence even before I could start reading the article I had formed an opinion. Reading it changed my perception of what the authors meant in that context, I would rather call it Smart entrepreneurship though smart is not as enforcing as disciplined.

Coming back to the article, it had various ideas that we as entrepreneurs could implement on a daily basis. I would like to test the effectiveness of my business plan by having a test run in my city, Chennai. This will help me ascertain how much I should charge for my services, how the market responds and what changes I could make to my business plan.

One thing the article forgets to mention is Failure. Have you ever thought of failure as a good thing? This weekend I was at the Clinton Global Initiative University where I learnt a lot from the experience of others. I heard Anu Sridhar , Co-founder of Nextdrop, speak at one of the plenary sessions and she said she believed her success in her venture was due to what she learned when she failed. Failure teaches you more than what you would learn when you succeed.

As entrepreneurs we should not be afraid to fail and what will keep us going will be our passion for social good and making a difference. Ending on a positive note I would like to share some information on how you can kick start funding for your venture from family and friends using this website. http://www.kickstarter.com/

Considering everything we have learnt in the last 12 weeks about Social entrepreneurship, the question on my head now is "When is the best time to start with your venture?" , Will be once u develop a business plan, while developing a business plan or as soon as you know your idea is worth something?