An entrepreneur has to be 'smart' to nourish his talent

If you observe the three steps in building a talent, you will appreciate that the talent can be built only when it is focused on a task. Talent is your 'capacity' to do a 'task' easily and fluently. Task could be of batting in cricket (sports), playing piano ( music), painting on a canvas (arts), or writing a software program, designing a bridge, managing a set of operations that produce cars. (these are called knowledge tasks).

However, as an entrepreneur, one has to perform many tasks. An entrepreneur tends to become jack of all but master of none, if he 'allows' it. Very few follow a path like Vinay.

Vinay had a huge interest in Electronics. So despite getting educated in Metallurgical engineering, he took a qualification in electronics after his one year graduation, and manage to shift to Electronics. He encountered a problem in Large voltage measuring instrument and manage to 'find' an elegant solution to the problem, which until then were imported. To manufacture those instruments, he partnered with two friends - one who had an experience in manufacturing, and another in marketing - to start his company in 1990's. By willing to share his 'innovation' with others, he manage to focus on his 'core skill' of electronics and just focused on 'product development'. Today after 20 years, he is one of the world's authority in these type of instruments. 

Entrepreneurs find it difficult to follow the path of Vinay due to several reasons. Sometimes the reason is due to over-attachment to 'money'. For instance, Vinay was 'smart' enough to share the benefit of his 'product innovation' with his two partners. Many entrepreneurs are not so 'foresighted'. They look at the 'loss' of money instead of seeing the 'gain' of concentrating on one's strength. 

But Vinay is not the only entrepreneur who has focused on one 'talent'. We know of many celebrity figures who did the same. For instance, Steve Woznaik collaborated with Steve Jobs to start Apple, but later withdrew, because he wanted to develop his 'technological talent'. You will find many successful companies have more than one partner, because it enables each to concentrate on 'one skill' and built into a formidable talent.

Entrepreneurs also find it difficult to follow the path of Vinay because of ignorance. For instance, they do not know that once a talent is built, and the market knows about it, one may prefer to go alone. For instance, Vinay who remained in partnership with the two partners, split and started his own firm, after twenty years in 2010. By this time, his product innovation capability was so well known and established in the market, that the other two skills (marketing and administration) became 'support skills' which were required in a 'diluted form' that could be filled with 'hired' employees. That is a market paradox ! Initially, when a person is starting a company with no background, talent is required to survive. When the name is established in the market, one can 'make do' with average skill.

I know of several entrepreneurs who lost their market suddenly because the main equipment manufacturer such as 2-wheeler company or an automobile company chose to change its location. Concentrating on ' core skill' and building it into a 'talent' is less risky in today's global market, instead of building a company that becomes 'extinct' because the market changes overnight.

What are you planning to do?

Airline industry in India, the right industry to understand business model

If you read the latest business world of 5 Dec 2011, you will get at least 500 foot view of a business model, if not 1000 feet. Here are some of the lessons you will get to understand

1. It will tell you how the mixed strategy has not worked for Kingfisher and Jet? If you are caught in a middle, that is the worst strategic mistake one can make. You will understand the important factors ( such as size) that are governing a business model of industry, such as airlines.

2. You will realise how one company can create a problem for the business model of the entire industry.   For instance, the constant price-cutting by AirIndia to increase their load factor has hurt everyone in the industry.

3. How and why one mistake can hurt a company for a looong time? Such as the mistake of Jet buying Sahara Airlines?

4. How the lower than anticipated growth has hurt Jet ? ( and conversely how much it would have benefited Jet if the growth would have happened?)

5. How companies can do business for a long time without earning any profits in anticipation that the golden pie will come? This will also help you understand why the same factor is driving another industry in India , the telecom industry ?

6. And above all, despite the common problems which all competitors are facing, how one company (Indigo) has managed to earn money with its distinct variation of Business model?

7. In order to deepen your knowledge further, you must also read the story of SouthWest Airlines, which continues to make money in US, despite everyone suffering?

I know that the article in BW alone will not be enough to give you this 500 feet view of business model. You may have to read many more articles in net to get the feel...but it is worth it.

Because these opportunities do not come again and again, you should make the most of it when the chance comes your way.  Wish you all the best. 

Can you read the business model of your industry?

Vishwesh is an ace hardware engineer. He wants to enter in the business of selling and maintaining desktop computers in a town of about 10 Lakh population after having worked in the corporate field for 5 years.  He feels that he knows lot of people in this home town and is confident of selling better service at higher price. What should he do? 

A business model of an industry gives you a fair idea of a business dynamics in that industry and helps you to understand the wherewithal to use to stay ahead in the industry. It also helps an entrepreneur to monitor the pulse of his own business model, so that he/she can avoid getting caught on the wrong foot.

Business model basically comprise of two sub-models: Customer acquisition ( cost and difficulty of acquiring customers) and Value delivery model ( the cost and difficulty of delivering the promised value to the customer). Basically, the business model helps you first to understand how the revenue of getting a customer every month/quarter/year is more than the cost of delivering and maintaining promised value to the customer. Secondly, it therefore helps you design your own business model to help you stay ahead of the rest of the industry, as we discussed in the earlier blog.

If you observe the industry of selling desktop computers, you will see the industry is 'localised' (which is good for Vishwesh) . On the other hand, revenue margins are constantly shrinking due to the 'commoditisation' of desktop computers  ( as well as online selling) as 'brand'  value is insignificant for the customers. Due to commoditisation, assembled PC business ( another source of revenue) is also vanishing slowly.

Second stream of revenue - maintaining the desktop - is under constant threat of lower price of new competitors because of the low entry barrier. Due to low investment, new competitors can enter the industry with ease. This competition will make it difficult for Vishwesh to charge higher revenue for better service. In other words, the basic proposition of Vishwesh of 'delivering high value service' is not tenable due to low entry barrier in this industry.

The business of maintaining computers, although scalable ( which means it can grow in size), depends on the available supply of quality hardware engineers. However good hardware engineers are difficult to get in a small city. Even if they come in a small city, they start their own business. In other words, opportunity to increase the 'scale' of business is highly limited for a 'local' supplier.

One of the common reasons why entrepreneurs in service-industry cannot increase the size of their business is due to scarcity of  'good quality resources'.  Unable to get skilled employees, entrepreneurs get untrained people and train them. No sooner they get trained, these employees can fetch higher salary for their skills. If the business has not grown fast enough to accommodate the higher expectations of employees, the employee leaves. The entrepreneur has to start from scratch.

What is your conclusion? Because of 'commoditisation' of desktops, it is difficult to earn higher revenue from selling branded PC's. Due to the same reason, it is also difficult to find customers who will buy 'assembled' PC. Revenue from hardware maintenance is also under threat due to low entry barrier. On the other hand, increasing the scale of business is difficult due to dependence on high quality engineers. In such a situation, what will you advise Vishwesh?

Do you think Vishwesh can do something and create his own business model that will offset the disadvantages? Now let us think of other options.

One of the option could be to 'start' the business with a higher scale - say at a district level? This will increase his investment and reach. Will this 'reputation' be enough to offset the reputation of local suppliers? Another option is to start 'hardware training'. This will fetch him a constant supply of quality engineers, although untrained? Can he offset low 'skill' of these fresh engineers with better processes and quality control? Is this practical? Or there is another option. Can Vishwesh cater to a new segment in his city- the small businesses in the industrial sector? In these companies, the network has to be managed, not just independent computers? Even if he has the skillset to manage the networks, can he train other engineers to sustain his business? And will these trained engineers start their own business after they learn from him? Is there something in the industry dynamics that will prevent them?

Many such options can be meaningfully discussed, once Vishwesh understands the business model of his industry. In order to avoid arm-chair theorising, Vishwesh has to use estimated figures of revenue/cost to weigh different options. Naturally, in some industry, other than customer acquisition and value-delivery, even other models could be important. For instance, i am aware of a composite material company, based in Mysore, which depends on innovating new composite materials to sustain its business.

Very often, entrepreneurs take the decision of entering a business based on their skill set, and not on the cold reality of the industry dynamics. It is also important to monitor the changing 'pulse' of your industry dynamics, so that you can take advantage of the emerging situations, and not become the hapless victim of the situation.

If you are an entrepreneur, you have to develop the skill to read the business model of your industry. Only this helps you to 'develop your own business model' to sustain your leadership. Can you read the business model of your industry? 

Do you possess the defining characteristic of an entrepreneur?

Recently Chetan Bhagat ridiculed Narayan Murthy for running a ' body shop'. This one-sided comparison  implies that Indian IT companies ( TCS, Infosys and Wipro) are doing something cheap and mediocre as compared to Apple, Google and Microsoft. Some commentators even go far to quote dollar revenue per employee to prove that Indian IT companies are operating at a lowest possible level of innovation.

But this comparison between Microsoft and Indian IT companies is like comparing apple and orange. Or comparing Wayne Rooney, the footballer with Sachin Tendulkar, the cricketer. Or comparing Gautam Gambhir, the cricketer and Fernando Alonso, the F1 formula driver, that I read today in October 30, Times of India. Gautam Gambhir, it is reported, earns 2.3 crore per year for playing 125 days in a year, while Fernando Alonso, earns Rs. 204 crores for driving 60 days a year. Or if you think of Indian games, between hockey and cricket. Why is there so much money in cricket? Commentators also fuel this enmity by making it look that, but for the support of  Indian Government, hockey players would have earned more.

Before making such comparisons, it is important to understand that the business model of your industry ( and even game) governs the productivity, revenue and even employee management practices of your industry. For instance, although both companies ( TCS and Apple) are in software industry, both are operating in a completely different niches. While Apple, Microsoft and Google operate in software product niche segment,  IT companies such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro operate in software service segment.

These software product companies therefore develop one product (be it Word Package, ipads, or Google Search Engines) for a huge sum, and then sell the same product  to millions of customers. For them, product patents, developing a new product quick enough, maintaining that product, and marketing are big bucket items.  Indian IT software service companies on the other hand face different challenges. For them every 'service' they provide through their employees to their customers brings them 'equivalent' revenue. Therefore, employee costs is very important for them. Like product companies, their employee cost is not recoverable on 'number of products sold'. They therefore have to get the best employee at a lowest possible cost to be competitive. And yes, belying the pervasive image of software coolies doing rote work, they also face numerous challenges in delivering their services.

IT software service companies have to bring together variety of diverse skills for a specific 'project', manage the costs of delivery to ensure adequate return, develop new set of skills before the market demands it, and  manage the 'gaps' between projects where their employees are not delivering any service. In short, they face a completely different set of challenges. They are not inferior to product companies; they are as constrained by their business model as are product companies. While they may not produce sexy products such as ipads, they produce equally good innovations and ideas that help them become as globally competitive as product companies.

As Arnab Ray writes in his article in TOI of October 30, Chetan Bhagat, who called Narayan Murthy's Infosys "mediocre" has himself been accused of being "mediocre". Arnab Ray provides this interesting insight on Chetan Bhagat. He writes, that as compared to say, Milan Kundera, Chetan Bhagat does not blaze any new trail in terms of originality of content in his novels. And neither does he have to, because he uses a different business model than Milan Kundera. Chetan Bhagat is in the business of writing best-sellers.He consistently develops successful novels by crafting stories that strike a chord in his target audience, uses language that does not tax their comprehension skills, and then markets them perfectly to reach his audience. This is a different set of skills than what Milan Kundera possesses, but that does not make it any less worthy of admiration.

It is tempting to dismiss the success of Chetan Bhagat ( or Indian IT companies) with a flippant wave of the hand. It is also tempting to call them "mediocre",  but the truth remains that both Narayan Murthy and Steve Jobs, or Chetan Bhagat and Milan Kundera have understood the constraints of their respective business model and developed a unique strategic skill of maintaining their leadership within their respective niches. And, in the market-place of products and services where profit is an important objective criterion for gauging excellence, that's all that matters.

The same holds true for the business model in which your product or service is being sold. Many entrepreneurs make this mistake of comparing their industry with some other industry to adopt certain practices of other industry, or belittle some practices of their industry. Successful entrepreneurs, like Narayan Murthy and Steve Jobs, or Chetan Bhagat and Milan Kundera , above all, must possess one defining characteristic. They must understand the business model of their industry niche and develop specific skills to maintain their leadership in that niche.

Are you aware of the business model of your industry niche?

Challenges of reluctant entrepreneur

I met Arun last week. He passed out BE ( Mech) two years back. He had an offer letter from a major software company. Because he had six months to join a software organisation, he joined his Uncle who was a consultant in E&C industry. While working with him, he enjoyed the work of consulting. His Uncle passed away last year. He is continuing in his entrepreneurial role of consultant.

Five years back, i had met Vijay. He had done a computer hardware course and was working with a Hardware Engineer who was maintaining computers in a city near Pune. Business was self sustaining. Due to family issues of the owner, owner went back to his home town ( Mumbai) and left the entire business to Vijay. Vijay decided to continue the show. 

Arun and Vijay face very different set of challenges. Neither they face the typical issues of corporate professional such as bosses, promotion, and jobs nor they face challenges of seasoned entrepreneur such as managing large business or 'working alone at the top without any guide'.  

They are caught in between. When they talk with their college classmates, they feel they are in a best role, because they are their own bosses or they feel constantly pressurised because of the uncertainty of getting their cheque next month. On the one hand, they lack the knowledge required to grow their business, while on the other hand they constantly wonder if they are doing the right thing remaining in their entrepreneurial role. 

Typically, they should take these four actions at the minimum:  

1. See entrepreneurial role as one of the role they can fulfill: I know of some individuals who love the freedom of being an entrepreneur and they refuse to work for anyone else. But for most others, i urge them to remember that entrepreneurial role is just one role. Do not get fixated in an entrepreneurial role and consider that it is the role meant for the whole of life. In today's world of Venture capital, it is quite easy to become an entrepreneur even later in life. 

For instance, Arun can work as a consultant for next two three years, get in touch with colleagues in ECE industry and join ECE company to see the corporate world from closer distance.  

2.  Understand the complementary ability required to encircle their core ability and develop it: When one starts working as an entrepreneur, one is almost forced to become a 'salesman'. 

For Vijay, learning this competency is absolutely crucial, although it may not be as critical for Arun. But even Arun should develop this competency, because we learn something best not because we have time, but when we have need. If Arun talks with his friends in ECE industry, none of them will even think about learning 'sales' because most engineers dislike 'selling'. If Arun has to be one step ahead in his career, he has to take advantage of this opportunity. 

The important question however is how to learn this skill of selling. Many individuals feel that MBA course is an option, but MBA course is meant to understand marketing, not sales. To understand the distinction between marketing and sales, read this. Sales competency is a mixture of four different abilities: Understanding customer requirement, developing your solution to address it, Communicating your solution to customer, and Closing the sale. Last two abilities are learnt through a good program on 'effective presentations', while the first one is learnt by reading some good book and working with some colleague who is in a sales role.  Second ability is an ability which is closer to their current competency. 

3. Connect with colleagues from same industry: This is critical for a budding entrepreneur, because he is physically isolated from other like-minded colleagues. Being out of sight is out of mind. Therefore, unlike corporate professionals, these entrepreneurs have to take special efforts to build this connection. 

Arun/Vijay can connect with like minded group virtually through face book or linked in. Becoming a member of  profession is another way. For instance, chamber of commerce have consulting groups, SME groups as separate groups. Attending their breakfast or dinner meetings is a better way to extend one's network beyond the known friends. Even connection through local groups like Rotoract and Lions club is beneficial. 

4.  Find a mentor/coach: In a corporate world, it is easy to get guidance from your boss, colleagues and even HR team. When you are alone, it is absolutely imperative that you get a mentor. 

Mentor is a senior person who belongs to the same industry and has high credibility. For instance, Arun has to find a mentor in ECE industry while Vijay has to find a mentor from hardware industry. Mentors know the typical roles available in the industry ( design engineers, field engineers, quality engineers and so on) and what competencies are required to fulfill these roles. Because they know the industry well, they know what is required 'next'. And they can give you useful feedback on your competency all the time. 

A coach on the other hand is also required to help these entrepreneurs guide through the challenges they face as a person in terms of job satisfaction, finding next direction in their life, and fulfilling their highest potential. However, finding coach is not easy. 

Does an entrepreneur venture for money?

When one talks with young graduates, they feel that one becomes an entrepreneur for money. However in my research on careers of over 7 years, i have found this to be untrue. What do you feel about it?

Starting a venture

Money, as Peter Drucker says, is not the purpose of doing business. Money is necessary to do business, and is also a byproduct of doing good business. But money is not the reason why entrepreneurs do business. In my career research, i have met many entrepreneurs. None of them, i observed, ventured for money, although they wanted money to gain the necessary freedom.

If you read the interviews of founders of Apple, hotmail or any other idea, ( Do not read biographies, because they tend to be coloured by the interpretation of the author), you will realise that these entrepreneurs developed a particular business idea because they enjoyed the difficult challenge; or they wanted to achieve something of significance. It is rarely about money. One of the good compilation of such interviews is 'Founders at Work" by Livingstone.

Also read this Sanjiv Bhikchandani's old blog ( Founder of Naukri.com) who talked about the same aspect. This is the link below

Exception to above

However, if you are uneducated and migrant ( leaving your home state or country to reside in new place), then you are an ideal person to become an entpreneur for money. Entrepreneurship demands large amount of 'change' in a person. A person with options, more than often, finds an easier exit to avoid 'change'. However, when a person is a uneducated migrant, an ideal combination, he does not have any option. He therefore 'changes'. If you observe the success of entrepreneurs in USA, you will observe this pattern. You will observe the same pattern in entrepreneurs who come to a large city like Mumbai from far-off places!

Entrepreneurs may also fall in Money trap

I have also observed a curious phenomenon of these entrepreneurs in my research. Once the entrepreneurs achieve their first success, many fall in, what i call, as money trap ! Money, instead of becoming means, becomes an end. Money, instead of enabling experimentation and exploration, ties them to tested and obsolete ways of doing business.

Many examples of this trap can be seen in the field of film industry, for instance. Many actors work hard to get their first break, but very few actors manage to avoid the lure of money later to continue to experiment and explore. One of the notable exception is Aamir Khan who despite the huge benefits works for one movie at a time. I have also observed few notable exceptions to this pattern amongst entrepreneurs. When i met these exceptional entrepreneurs, i discovered the challenges one faces to avoid this trap which i shall share later in this blog!

Today i observed a systemic pattern in the careers of entrepreneurs that makes it difficult to avoid this money trap. Today, I read an article in Times of India ( dated 22 June ) about Sahil Parikh, Founder of Deskaway. When he moved from web service development to his e-enabled project management product, he said that service business was lucrative. Moving away to a product was risky as it meant diverting attention from something lucrative. And it took 3 years to make profit on a new product!

Giving something steady and moving away to unknown territory naturally provokes lot of uncertainty & anxiety. I have observed that freelancers, such as trainers, chartered accounting consultants, and even doctors , find it more difficult to surmount this challenge than an established entrepreneur with a business unit. Currently, i am observing a trainer who is facing uphill task of moving away from his established business of training to SME consulting. Would you advise anyone to do it?

Sixth challenge of Entrepreneurial career

Read about Map my India's short story in TOI which was started by Rakesh Verma. It explains a significant challenge of an entrepreneur that I missed articulating in my first blog of five challenges: How to produce money outcomes? One of my entrepreneur friend pointed me this miss of mine !

A corporate professional can use his niche skill ( be it programming, designing, recipe building, or training) and expect his organisation ( intermediary) to convert his output into a 'business result'. While his organisation 'synthesises' rest of the resources to do the conversion, the professional gets his money through skill market. An entrepreneur, on the other hand, has to encounter this challenge all by himself/herself.

Further, he faces different challenges at different times, necessitating different strategies. Initially, the challenge is of producing immediate 'result' from the planned idea. This is the challenge of Exploration. Like Rakesh Verma's case, he got his first assignment for his 'software service' company from Tata Steel at Jamshedpur. That kept them in the business. Another entrepreneur i know started with a product idea from software service for students. Some entrepreneurs encounter a stiff challenge at this stage itself. They move from one 'service' to another 'service', never consolidating their skill base, and therefore struggling for a long time. Sooner or later their business model ( of getting new customers plus delivering service to them on consistent basis) gets consolidated. If it fails to produce results, the entrepreneur may just exit.

Second stage of this challenge faced by an entrepreneur is being able to do what one wants to do. This is the challenge of Consolidation in a specific direction. At this stage, the challenge is to find what one should do and then 'let go' the old business idea,if required. If one is lucky, one can extend the initial business idea of 'exploratory' stage further. This is what happened with Sanjiv Bhikchandani from Naukri. Online diversification of recruitment idea helped him extend his business model further. However Rakesh Verma faced a stiffer challenge. He and his wife had to decide what to do and then 'invest' all the money in one 'basket' to make it happen. As initial customers tend to 'determine' the path of an organisation, letting this go is very difficult. Rakesh Verma invested in GIS solutions, when maps were not produced in India, and then proceeded to invest all his money ( 2 crores) in it. Sometimes, entrepreneurs take long time to find their new business model. I know of a Trainer who is currently going through a tough period of this transition. After running his well-oiled 'Corporate training' business venture for a long time, he is trying to move into new business model that is completely untested in Indian Market, SME consulting.

Third challenge is the challenge of 'Growth' beyond a particular scale. This is a stage where most entrepreneurs falter, because it demands too 'different' skill-set. I am currently working with a first generation entrepreneur who has made significant inroads with his new business model in real estate business. However, as the challenges of growing a 'small set up' into an 'organisation' to sustain the 'growth' demands too many changes for the entrepreneur team, very few entrepreneurs manage to negotiate this hump.

The skill required in each of the three stages is so different that many entrepreneurs do not move from one stage to another. They get stuck in one stage. First stage is facilitated by 'Management' knowledge taught in MBA colleges. Many would-be entrepreneurs therefore ask me if they should do MBA before venturing into something. MBA knowledge is useful; but only for moving into 'Exploration' stage, i tell them. For producing outcomes in other stages, MBA knowledge alone is not enough, as entrepreneurs have to bring together the new skill-set (that is not available with them) and mind-set ( that requires too big a change for them).

Exploration stage skill is so different that some entrepreneurs only specialise in this. These are called as serial entrepreneurs. They bring their set up to stage of growth, sell their stake and walk away for others to take the company to next stages. In US, which flourishes on new ideas, venture capitalist and PE funds nurture this community of explorers. Now a days, even fresh MBA's start their venture with VC funding.

We shall explore the challenges at each of these stages in this blog.

Invitation to entrepreneurs to realise the dreams of your careers

In my research of 'how careers are made', i had primarily studied corporate professionals due to my own background and 'entertainment professionals' due to my wife's background. However, as i have progressed, and understood the DNA of corporate professionals, challenges of entrepreneurial careers have fascinated me more than corporate careers. It has perhaps happened due to my closer interaction with entrepreneur friends.

I consider all those professionals as 'entrepreneurs' who run their business with their unique individual stamp. Entrepreneurs come in different hues: as a individual trainer like a freelancer, an accountant who manages his firm with a group of employees, or an entrepreneur who runs his single business enpire of 200 crores in his individual style. Some entrepreneurs are young and some are with gray hair. Some are pioneering new ideas, some are extending the existing ones.

But all entrepreneurs face similar challenges in their career to achieve their dreams. And because they face similar challenges, it could be helpful to share them in one forum such as this. I can think of five big challenges.( If i have missed something important, please share!)

Firstly, the interconnection between work-life, personal-life and people-life in an entrepreneur's life is dense. Due to this dense interconnection, entrepreneurs bring far more 'emotions' in their work-life, and use lot of 'head' in their personal life. This is both good and bad, depending on which side you stand.

Second challenge of entrepreneur emerges because of being owners of a system. Because of being 'owners of system', they think they can 'maneuver' the system the way they want. But they are as much 'prisoners' of a system as are employees! This misunderstanding pushes them into action that leads them into uncharted territories.

Third challenge emerges due to more 'action' orientation in an entrepreneur's work-life. As entrepreneurs, they have to be more action-oriented. This leads to very curious consequences. Instead of taking action from a careful thought, they tend to 'make' their thought to justify the action that has been taken. Psychologist call it retrospective rationality. After a period, this tends to mix 'thought and action'. This does not create any problem until they are succeeding. This however becomes a big issue when they encounter 'failure'.

Fourth challenge is a common challenge: the challenge of aligning 'doing' aspirations with' money' aspirations. After they succeed, they want to find a way to 'do things that they are happy with as well as earn money from the same activity'. Some entrepreneurs, unable to find a way, give up too early while others struggle till the end of their lives.

Fifth challenge is the challenge of balancing people-life ( relationships) and work-life. Managing a business is a pretty hectic and tough ask. Finding time to spend on both is just one part of the challenge; but the bigger challenge is separating the 'social' and 'family' relationships.

Here is a blog space to share, explore and find better ways to face your career challenges as entrepreneurs. Coming from my vantage point, to start with, i have something to offer. However, as the challenges and dreams are about your life, this forum will help you get clarity and direction if you share your doubts, ask your questions , and also bring your wisdom on the table. I can promise one thing: the journey of achieving your dreams will be exciting.