As we are getting ready to celebrate

January 11 as Entrepreneurship Day,

this is my call to all the Entrepreneurs.

Can we commit ourselves,

to one of the two

or both these principles?

One,

all the work I do,

from here on will be my offering to my God,

and

Two,

in case you’re not

a theist, a believer in God,

then

all the work I do, I will ensure is of the highest standard,

that what I do becomes a benchmark to the industry.

Whatever I do, I will do it to such highest standard,

that whatever I do becomes the benchmark in my industry.

Let me elaborate a little.

Sometime in the past, I went through this thought process…

Let me first address those who believe in God,

and I’ll come to the rest because

I want this to be inclusive.

And the greatest beneficiary is going to be the larger world

by we entrepreneurs committing ourselves to either of these two or both these principles.

The flowers, or gift of nature or gift of God by whichever way you want to call it.

But if they have to become a garland, or if they have to become a bouquet,

human effort is involved. Only by what we do,

flowers can become a garland or a bouquet.

Iron ore and coal,

is God’s creation, nature’s gift.

But if they have to become steel,

human effort is required.

It’s only by our effort,

the raw material can be converted into a finished product.

I can give any number of examples.

All I’m trying to say is,

while all the raw material in the world is God’s creation,

nature’s gift to us,

all finished goods,

raw material to finished goods is only through human effort,

human intelligence,

human enterprise,

human sweat,

human endeavors…

otherwise called as work.

So, one day, this is personal.

What you want to adopt, it’s up to you.

Because this is personal.

But one day I told myself, ‘My Lord,

I shall no more pray

with words,

or hymns, or rituals.

That is something I think everybody can do.

But my Lord,

because my work is involved,

including this communication… The air I’m using right now

belongs to God, gift of nature.

This design of my entire vocal system,

which is articulating this air into meaningful communication,

I didn’t design it.

That’s also creation of God gift of nature.

But the effort to translate that air into meaningful communication that is happening right now,

is human effort, my effort.

So, I told myself one day

I shall not pray to you the way the world prays to you, through rituals or words or hymns or bhajans,

but my lord,

from now onwards, all the work I do

will be my offering unto you.

And because it’s my offering unto you,

here comes the second point.

Whatever I do, I will ensure, is the very best.

There is no place for compromise.

There’s no place for it’s okay.

There’s no place for justifying lack of excellence.

Whatever I do,

I will ensure that it is done to the highest standard that is possible,

highest level of excellence that can be delivered.

Whatever I do,

I will develop such level of competence that I deliver nothing but the best.

One, whatever I do is my offering unto you.

And because it’s my offering unto You,

I will only do the very best.

And I concluded,

‘If all the work I do is my offering and to my Lord,

then my very life becomes

my prayer unto You’

My call to all of you is,

as entrepreneurs,

even before we lecture it to our team

on what they need to do,

can we lead them by example,

where we set such standards as entrepreneurs,

that whatever work we do,

whether it’s conducting a meeting,

or research and development,

or brainstorming,

or in your own private space,

you’re sitting and working out a business model

to be implemented,

whatever you do.

Let’s ensure

that we only do it to the highest standard that is possible.

And if you believe in God,

let’s do that as a dedication to the Creator,

then your very life becomes your prayer!

Even if you don’t believe in God,

I think we owe it to the industry we represent.

We owe it to ourselves,

anything that comes from us,

must be Numero uno,

the standard for others to benchmark,

we cannot be an also ran,

another one in the crowd in whatever we do.

We also owe it to our consumers, customers, clients,

who trust us with their time and money.

And I think they deserve the best.

Let’s be game changers in the industry by just

ensuring that we up the game,

we raise the bar,

and we only deliver the very best…

to the world, in whatever we do.

Let’s revolutionize

the standards of what we do the quality that we deliver.

And let’s lead our organization

by being a living inspiration and living role model.

A leader who walks the talk

and what sort of world we live in,

where whether we are selling product or service,

or offering experiences to the world.

Let there be only one standard

that we all live up to as entrepreneurs,

that we always surpass customer expectations,

in whatever we do.

We surpass…

not,

‘We want to live up to customer expectations’,

very old paradigm…

‘Let us surpass customer expectations!’.

We want to create customer satisfaction, very old paradigm,

Let’s become customer crazy!

Let’s create a delight in the customer.

Just doing business with us

must become a customer’s delight.

And if we can get this aspiration,

work as entrepreneurs across the globe,

take that as our pledge on entrepreneurship day, January 11.

induce this into the DNA of the culture

that we represent as an organization,

not just in your lifetime,

for generations to come,

that must be the brand identity of whatever brand that we are creating.

That we are here to surpass customer expectations.

Why?

As a mental philosophy,

‘Anything I do, I want that to become the benchmark for the industry!”

And for spiritually aligned people,

‘My Lord, all the work I do

is my offering unto you

and if all the work I do is my offering unto you,

then I shall do nothing but the very best in whatever I do.

And my Lord,

if all the work I do is my offering unto you

then my very life becomes my prayer

Unto You’.

My dear Entrepreneurs

Let’s up the game!

Loving you so much.

Thank you.