That Sense of Achievement on Receiving the First Repeat Order

An entrepreneur's life is replete with momentous events and the frequency with which they seem to take place is equally breathtaking.

There are several such moments, like installing the first laptop, receiving your incorporation certificate, hiring the first employee, signing the first paycheck, receiving the first purchase order and receiving the first payment. Yet amongst all the above mentioned ones what is perhaps the most fulfilling moment is the one when you receive your first repeat order.

The sense of validation and vindication that sweeps over you is something that sets this moment apart. So if your first payment made you jump with joy, the first repeat order, whenever it happens, shall make you feel like sitting down and cherish the feeling.

Today we received our first repeat order from Britannia, our first marquee client. An order much larger, than the previous one. What makes the memory stand out is the matter-of-fact manner in which the order was communicated. Clearly, we've become a part of the client's system and they depend on us to deliver. We've now been accepted as the norm!

The real deal is in being able to hold on

So while I was taking the plunge into the unknown waters of entrepreneurship, dozens of friends warned me about its perils. Quite a few of them encouraged me as well, hoping to get a free ring side view of the struggles involved in it. Since most of them were people who would never give up the bondages of corporate slavery, I tended to discount their views.

But I clearly remember, all the faces of people who admired the fact that I had taken the courageous decision which most of them would never end up taking. This happened when I had ultimately taken the plunge. Most of them couldn’t stop raving about the kind of guts needed to take such a call.

When I think about it now, what most of them on the other side of the corporate fence do not realize is that the real game of courage starts when you are in it. It takes much more courage to go on in the face of adversity when you are actually in the middle of the entrepreneurial journey.

The only other parallel that I can think of is the game of roulette where the differentiator between the men and the boys, is their courage to hold on. The longer that you can stay on the table and keep taking the hits of the losses along the way, the higher are your chances of raking in the wins.

For all those people sitting on the fence and wondering when and whether to take the plunge, the big deal isn’t the decision to jump. But the real deal is in being able to stay in the pit and continue to fight your way out of it.