DC Design Founder Dilip Chhabria's #4 Valuable Tips to Budding Entrepreneurs 'I became an entrepreneur to control and direct my own destiny.'
By Nidhi Singh
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Entrepreneurs face many challenges at different stages of their start-up journey. Many fail due to lack of guidance and mentoring support during tough times.
Dilip Chhabria, Founder of DC Design, shared his learnings at the 7th Entrepreneur India Annual Convention with the hope that entrepreneurs don't have to experience failure in future. Here are four important tips that Chhabria expounded for entrepreneurs.
Unless You Are Obsessively Passionate About A Particular Product, You Can't Really Succeed
"The key factor is you have to be fearless and that will be possible if you have dollops of passion. When youngsters come to me for job openings, they say we are passionate about a,b,c d products. I really don't take interest in them, because, unless you are obsessively passionate about one particular product, you really can't succeed. I had that obsessive passion for cars. I ate, slept and drank car. Of course, being an entrepreneur you always got to take one step at a time in future and you have to be relevant," he said.
You Got To Be Crazy Enough To Believe As If There Is No Tomorrow
"If you are a creator, you can never be put down because you are creating something, and not fudging a ledger or someone's pocket. At some point in time, it is going to pay back for sure," he said, adding, "In our case, we made the first breakthrough in 2003, where we succeeded to bag an international project in the first attempt. Looking back, I wonder how we had the audacity to do that. So, you got to be crazy enough to believe as if there is no tomorrow."
His message was loud and clear: "Live for the day. That serendipity is what really gets you going."
The Most Important Asset You Have Is Time Not Money
"When I started out at DC Design, the opportunities were fewer and therefore the competition was also lesser. Today, the opportunities are far more. You have global opportunities and you have global competition. You have to ensure that the most important asset you have is time, not money," he stressed.
I Became An Entrepreneur To Control My Own Destiny
"Many people ask me why I became an entrepreneur. I think the answer was to really control and direct my own destiny. I realized back then that if I really work the better part of my life for a company, at the end of the day I am going to build their brand equity. That thought was really scary," he said.
"I realized that if I had to have an enriching future or livelihood, I had to create an organization that will be able to transform the design sketches into reality. And, therefore, I had to create this backend to be able to actually practise my craft. I am glad at what I did because that has created a designer and an entrepreneur out of me," he said, adding, "From making custom cars I became a car manufacturer. Therefore, I think, essentially, this is a journey that every entrepreneur could take in India," he said before signing off.
