Success Sets Others to Success - Broadcast It

Success Sets Others to Success – Broadcast It.  

                                                                                                             Dinesh K Kapila

What set me off was a one liner from a friend, why do we and some like us develop success stories. Are they really able to convey a deeper message. Well success begets success. Success paves the way for others to emulate and follow. It sets an example for many to aspire to, it can impart an ambition where it was just resting.

Any book or series on success stories, say from the world of entrepreneurs or business, micro or medium scale, is somewhat able to relate to the thoughts and plans of the person who has an interest in the subject and reads it. These stories or rather illustrations only go to underline that success is possible, success in terms of empowerment, success in terms of income enhancement, success in terms of sustainable grounding of projects, in project execution, across all sectors and genders, provided of course that the multiple factors that lead to success are pursued with vigour.  

I personally know as a development banker a host of successful ventures and projects across the developmental spectrum as also in infrastructure and commercial ventures. These have imparted knowledge and insights on technology, product development, enhancing productivity, marketing in the rural context, the challenges in execution and overcoming them, the typical problems of rural infrastructure,  it’s a huge range. More important, you love to see the pride and happiness in the eyes and manner of the fellow citizens, who turned entrepreneurs or social minded on developmental projects, and realise they are stable in operations. And contrary to cynical thoughts, there are engineers who do showcase with pride the projects they have executed. These are the successes which need to be taken to the others on the margins or the ones still assessing the scenario. The stories of success consistently inspire and certainly provide insights and an opportunity to learn.     

I would like to state here that I have consistently supported the concept and field of entrepreneurship. This is one sector which is open to entry, on merit, to a large extent. Concerns of access to finance are certainly there, as specially in rural areas, banks are the only source of finance. Plus the projects are mostly basic and do not attract glamour or attention. Yet they are the foundations of small rural areas and as they add up in mass and scale, they are vital cogs of the economy. I also agree with many observors that the business community has strong inter linkages and is certainly community driven, but even then, benign Government Policies over the years have created a huge core of entrepreneurs across all communities and are leading to many young citizens seeking to turn to entrepreneurship. They are hungry for success in their own humble way and the access to information through the digital mode is breeding ambition and aspirations, even independent of governmental prescriptions. This is what motivates many like me. I can safely say that not all entrepreneurs, even the medium scale entrepreneurs have political or social cum business links, many are emerging by slowly and steadily forging ahead on their own steam. In this process, they may develop their own linkages and understanding of the operating environment, that is another interesting insight.

Let me illustrate this by an example. Jagdish Kaur had set up a shop selling general merchandise and low cost dresses in a small rural area. This was as a part of the Self Help Group. The members slowly realised that they could buy cloth at wholesale rates some 70 kilometres away and then they could work on tailoring and embellishments. Then I met one rice sheller owner, a first generation entrepreneur,  who had no clue about the mode of obtaining the stock,  by the second year he was adept at working the official system. I have seen girls from communities which are very traditional forge ahead in ventures such as beauty parlours and young men from land owning communities even trying to set up ventures in woodcraft. And then there is Seema, when we first met, she was an emerging leader in a group of women in a small mountainous settlement, later on I watched her evolve as a confident speaker, at home in every conference. Then there are many like Sultan Singh and Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, educating themselves technically and financially and forging ahead into the application of cutting edge technology in Agriculture. I am only trying to emphasise here that commitment, a knowledge of the particular market and ecosystem and an understanding of basic finance can certainly lead to success. Our society may be hierarchical in orientation and it’s business community inter linked, but this is increasingly a receding story. In the rural hinterland, rigidities do prevail, but the consistent flow of information is certainly diluting barriers.

In any case amidst all the doom and negative scenarios we build consistently and the wonderful ability we have of running down ourselves, highlighting success stories will break the negativity we wallow in. The successes which occurs unobtrusively  need to be focused upon and highlighted. There are successes even at the basic farming level, as many farmers do diversify and enhance incomes. The atmosphere of distrust in our nation is such (no reference to politics please, but our thinking over  decades) that many a times I am asked if projects are grounded at all or are only on paper ! Moreover when I clarify that this is a general myth and is being too cynical, even that elicits understanding smiles. At times I am constrained to only sigh in exasperation and to control my irritation.

Therefore the only way out is playing up successes and documenting them and thereafter presenting them on multiple modes for the information to spread out. This is the only way to spread the varied modes to success, enhancing productivity and stepping up motivation with consequential gains for our population and the economy.  

Alongside I must only emphasise the need to bring respect to the seeds of success sprouting in our nation, more so, in our rural areas and semi urban settlements. We lionise the major players in corporate India, urban focused, which has unleashed ambitions on a huge scale. However we have denied this to successful ventures or pilots, micro or small or medium in our rural areas and semi urban India. Until an unless we attract attention to such ventures, tailoring them appropriately to audiences we target, such as the segments of the rural population, bankers across hierarchies, educationists,  the bureaucracy and the varied chambers of commerce.  There is also a need to showcase these to our opinion makers from the rural sector who are often seen on media,  they should also discuss these ventures and the imperative need to scale up, rather than only engage in discussions which are often focused on the negatives of the sector. Not for a moment can these concerns be denied, but we need to recognise the green shoots in our rural areas and semi urban India. A last point, the need for commercial success, for a business orientation needs to be embedded and built up in all societies and communities in rural and semi urban India. And our farm scientists need to know the financial aspects of each technology and application, it’s vital for a commercial orientation.  

Hence the need to showcase successes and then leave it to each would be entrepreneur or project leader to learn more, to study the element or strand which he or she identifies with, the need not to give up but to persevere and create a circle of success.

===============================================================================