It’s often said that entrepreneurs and political leaders are similar in many ways. We know that a certain IITian’s party has been likened to a ‘startup’ while a Chief Minister’s meteoric rise from a tea-stall vendor to a PM candidate is being touted as an inspirational ‘entrepreneurial-style’ story. But now the Kejriwals and the Modis can take a step back as India’s very own golden boy comes forth into the limelight. We think Rahul Gandhi (or RaGa, as he is fondly called by the Indian Twitterati/media) shared some great insights in a tête-à-tête with Arnab Goswami on TV, which many entrepreneurs could find useful.
Here are 11 things that we think that entrepreneurs can learn from Rahul Gandhi’s interview:
1) Don’t bother to prepare yourself before you go to a VC. If you can’t convince them with your answer, confuse them.
2) Have the same answer for all the questions. Just say, “we have to empower the employees…” all the time.
3) And when it comes to empowering yourself, address yourself in the third person.
4) Choose a word and use it 100 times in your interview, whether you are speaking to the media or a venture capitalist or maybe a potential employee.
5) If a journalist asks you a question, give such a vague answer that the interviewer forgets the question he/she asked.
6) If you don’t know the answer to a question, then just say ‘pass’.
7) Learn your answers by rote and say it in the order you’ve been told, irrespective of the question.
8) Remember that you are born as a leader. And even if you are not, you can always use all the VC funding for a multi-crore marketing gimmick.
9) If you are a third-generation entrepreneur, it’s ok to act as if you know everything, even if you don’t.
10) Screw up a media interview but still get lots of views on YouTube and TV. At least your startup gets good brand awareness. No publicity is bad publicity!
11) And last but not the least… always do what you love and not what your mother tells you, except when she is the lead investor.
More interesting links/media related to the whole topic:1. Video
2. Commentary by Mahesh Murthy
If you think there are more lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from Rahul Gandhi, please feel free to use the comments section.
Note: For all distant cousins of Sheldon Cooper who didn’t get the article, click here or here.
