When my friends ask me “how I feel about my journey in the startup world”, after spending more than two decades in the corporate world, I have just one answer – It's like giving birth to a baby.

Thanks to this journey, as a startup entrepreneur, I have begun to understand the joys and pains of ‘motherhood’, which my wife experienced years ago.

I can co-relate with this analogy, since my venture is into the Rituals & Religion. A comparison between business and human lifecycle, thus becomes obvious. As per the ancient Hindu scriptures, there are 16 sacraments or ‘Shodasa Samskara’ rituals, that serve as rites of passage and mark the various stages of the human life from conception to cremation.

Similarly, in a business lifecycle there are 7 stages of development starting from seeding to exit. There is no quick way to skip any of the formative stages and entrepreneurs who have tried to attempt this, often met with failure.  

A successful entrepreneur is one who nurtures his startup venture just like a mother does from the time it is born till it starts earning business revenue. (attains adulthood). No wonder women entrepreneurs have higher business success rate than men (as per a study conducted by YouGov in Aug'15) thanks to their ability to nurture a startup like a mother would.

My startup journey has taught me many things. One of them is ‘Never be too impatient to see the baby grow to an adult in just a few months’.

Take baby steps and guide the company with the help of right partners sharing similar passion. If you ignore the baby (bad management) or do not feed the baby when hungry (funding), it’s a sure recipe for bad times to come. 

Coming back to the 16 sacraments laid down in the Hindu scriptures, I start mapping them as and when I enter a new stage during the growth phase of my startup venture. The rituals in connection with major events of our lives, such as pregnancy, childbirth, education, marriage and death find a link with business lifecycle from ideation/seeding; company incorporation; managing the business; growing the business (mergers and acquisitions) and finally exit.

Our ancient scriptures have withstood the test of time and now it is up to us to apply the learnings, even in contemporary times.