STFU- Excerpt & Introduction

This book, ‘STFU – Start The F Up’ is about a journey and not a destination. It is my way of looking at things. I have drawn my perspective from some fundamentals of business and management, self-belief, real- world experiences and failures. This is an attempt to bring you closer to a whole new way of looking at things, with an honest and a broader perspective—a perspective that lived deep inside you but never came to surface. This is an attempt to bring you closer to . . . You.

This book is not a guide to run your organization. It is certainly not about giving solutions to all the problems that you would face during your entrepreneurial journey; it is about inspiring you to look for solutions yourself. It is about empowering you to make the right decision.

The book intends to share with you some basic ideologies that I developed through the initial phase of my journey as an entrepreneur; no doubt I’ve got a long way to go. But the idea was to document a path that was recently treaded. The book makes sense to those who are in a similar situation in their professional life. AT the same time, it eyes those who’ve moved way higher but have been blinded on their way up.

It is not necessary that the solutions and situations mentioned in this book will fit your bill. But it would certainly take you a few steps closer to what you need. To a great extent, Entrepreneurship, is about being practical. Furthermore, practicality is not about aping this book blindly. It is about trying to get to the crux of various topics featured here. The bottom line is that the situations and problems faced by every leader are rarely identical; there will always be some aspects that are distinct to your situation, just the way it is rare to see two people think or behave alike. And perhaps, the goodness of the world is in retaining that difference to a certain degree.

But as leaders, you do not have the luxury of being the way you might want to be. You’ll need to mold yourself. You’ll need to create a structure of management that revolves around your people, and not you. You will need to live by an example. Remember that every time there is a crisis, we look up. That’s how it works in organizations too. Of course, it is great to empower your people and make yourself redundant. But that takes time and a combination of right people. Until then, you can’t be setting a symphony for your people and nudging the chords yourself.

Entrepreneurship is a tricky subject. Ironically, even though it doesn’t have any shortcuts, we spend our entire life in search of one. As an entrepreneur – a leader, you ought to believe that in business, there is no such thing as ‘one size fits all’. Everything is case-specific and erratic. Hence, you’ll have to depend heavily on that one person who’ll always come to your rescue—you! Yes, nothing helps you . . . like You!