Not many women are taking up the road of entrepreneurship, but out of those who have, many have seen success. They all share similar vigour, positive attitude and a big portion of mental strength. Also, most of them have faced similar atrocities and prejudice in their path of success. Many are top notch profiles that even most of the men can’t match. They have acquired at least decent education; have worked in MNCs or closely seen how the corporate world works. They have taken up several other tasks which might range from social volunteer-ship to projects requiring great academic knowledge. Another major thing they have in common is zeal to change the existing system and working hard to make them better through their initiatives.
They have the ability to risk their whole career and life on to one initiative. Undoubtedly, they are at times scared and at others very confident of themselves. They also see difficult phases during the journey. Doesn’t it sound like a normal entrepreneur, or the story is different for a woman? The difficulties are no less for women but still many think it is easy for a woman to be an entrepreneur. People still have a mind-set that being a woman, they have no liabilities to anybody. At the most they will get married to someone who can bear their expenses. Some even think that women can easily get any work done by the magic of makeup.
Is it really the case?
I have been told the same thing hundreds of times since I started my venture CareerGuide.com. I get surprised when many so-called well educated people tell me that there is nothing to worry about my company, someone I will marry will take care of this. This is really strange that even after 69 years of attaining independence, people are not independent of their narrow mindedness towards women and their strengths. They forget the names of the likes of Indra Nooyi (President and CFO of PepsiCo, Padma Bhushan awardee), Naina Lal Kidwai (global advisor at Harvard Business School, non-executive director on the board of Nestle SA, Padma Shree awardee), Kiran (founder chairman and MD at Biocon Ltd, board of Governors of ISB and IIT Hyderabad, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardees) and to be noted that even after hostile environment, one third of today’s entrepreneurs are women.
So, there is nothing to worry and every woman entrepreneur has the calibre to reach the top, but definitely if a woman has chosen this field, she is much more courageous as compared to her fellow male entrepreneurs. She took her steps towards this journey even when many do not take her seriously. Many doubt her capabilities only for the reason that she belongs to the ‘lady group’. This not only affects her motivation and positive attitude but might also impact her success of getting work in the beginning. People do not believe that she will be able to do what she intends to and moreover, if she can then they do not believe that the work will be carried out successfully. She listens to hundreds of people trying to de-motivate her but still she works harder at this stage to keep herself positive and energetic.
A woman who has courage to risk her career on a venture is probably more determined to walk on the “not-so-easy” path. She is certainly more courageous as she took this path even when hundreds were against the idea of seeing her as the boss. She is definitely not the one to think that she can marry off someone to take care of her venture and her expenses. If she can start a venture on her own, she can work hard for her expenses as well.
This is the time when everyone should embrace the idea of women entrepreneurs rather than looking with suspect towards their endeavours. Now is the time to celebrate the women the way Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook mentions that “I want every little girl who is told she is bossy, to be told instead she has leadership skills.”
