NAFIS, Shabbir Husain

One of the dilemmas I think a would be entrepreneur might face is whether to “think small” or to “think big”.

Think Small:

Considering you have never tried your hand at entrepreneurship earlier, have finally gathered the courage to say good bye to the corporate world and are in times of self-doubt, you may find comfort in thinking small – “to do the doable”. Thinking small would mean being conventional in terms of value of the solutions or services, impact, size, scale, investments and returns. The would be entrepreneur might be ok with it because that’s what he thinks he’s most comfortable or confident with. And everything starts small (bottom-up) anyways. On the other hand the ‘think small’ attitude might lead one to question is it really worth leaving the comfort zone. ‘play-it-safe’ versus ‘are the returns of thinking small really worth pursuing?’

Think Big:

We know returns on efforts are directly proportional to one’s ability to think big. Thinking big will lead to a proportionate sized effort and hopefully returns. However for one used to working in a ‘do-as-directed-mode’ in the corporate world, ‘think big’ might be very overwhelming and could potentially scare the would be entrepreneur from taking the plunge.

We all know if we are thinking then might as well think big, however at the same time how do we ensure it does not scare the first timers off? How can a smooth and confident transition be made from the think small to think big? What are your thoughts and advice?

I have come to realize it takes guts to just think big – ‘Dare to Dream‘.