Since I co-founded Monks Bouffe in January 2016, this has been one constant question I have answered for almost everyone I have met in these 6+ years. Why the transition from an employee to an entrepreneur? How did Monks Bouffe come into being?
When I had the 1 st conversation with my then senior at work about starting my own venture, the answer was a discouraging one, “Grass always seems to be greener on the other side”. Maybe it does, but for me it surely was.
Why did I make the shift towards entrepreneurship?
The seed was sown very early in life. As a teenager, while I understood my grandfather’s and father’s business, it inspired me to build something of my own. The seed of building an organization at some point in life was sown.
As I moved out of school and into my junior college days, this seed developed and grew with the multiple side-hustles that my best friend and I used to execute for the extra pocket expenses.
Coming from a middle-class Kutchi business family, we were only provided for the necessary expenses and never had that extra cash to meet the unending needs of a teenager.
In retrospect, this phase was the most important in terms of directing my life towards an eventual entrepreneurial journey.
Does working as an employee help on the entrepreneurial journey?
Gaining experience can never go waste. For me, working with a couple of organizations that were disciplined, structured and allowed creativity and flexibility was something that helped.
Not having formal education in building an organization (which I believe would not have helped either way) made it important for me to observe and learn how organizations are built, how structures can be formed, how favorable environments can be created, how leaders and managers function differently and what one should “not do” while creating or building an organization. This is what my time at CRISIL ratings and India Infoline Advisory was all about.
My major learning’s from my 4 years as an employee –
Disciplined approach to work
People are the most important assets
Importance of Documentation and organized approach to work
The difference between leaders and managers
Determination will get you through, skills might not.
Why the transition specifically to the Organic Food & Farming space?
During my time at Crisil, my thought process was majorly influenced by my brother and my then partner. We have had discussions about sectors and ideas that were different from the mundane life of numbers and the stock market that I was then deeply involved in. We spoke of art, environment, wild-life, sustainability, astronomy, philosophy and much more.
This was a world which I never knew existed and it started fascinating me. I started seeing things more holistically and with a wider lens. I started disliking the idea of viewing the world from a narrow capitalistic lens of accumulating money. It shifted my perspective towards being “purpose-driven” and “having a deeper meaning to life”.
This also led to joining an NGO called New Acropolis which gave me a chance to go deeper into philosophy, understanding life, its purpose and seeing the world from a completely different lens. Around this time, my brother used to volunteer with an NGO called Green Souls, in Kharghar (Mumbai).
Green Souls was led by, Julius Rego. They introduced urban gardening through a 1 acre model farm in the premises of the Tata Cancer Hospital for children where they used to grow organic vegetables & herbs for the patients. Here, Julius didn’t just speak about urban gardening, but about how organic farming can be a solution to the wider agricultural crisis in the state of Maharashtra and India. He introduced us to this book – The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka & this is a book I would strongly recommend as a must read, whether one is actively involved in farming or are just a consumer of organic produce.
While I was being introduced to these wider aspects of life, the inclination of doing something that was holistic, non-destructive, sustainable or environmental friendly was becoming an obvious choice.
I still didn’t know when and what I would do, but had surely started discussing my thoughts and ideas with a few friends and colleagues.
This was when I started my 1 st venture, which was not Monks Bouffe. It was Futurera Fuels, along with a colleague at CRISIL and a couple of other friends. Futurera Fuels was into manufacturing biomass briquettes and pellets which could replace or at least reduce the usage and dependence on coal.
We started with great enthusiasm and a decent idea, but lacked determination among a few other things which are essential for an entrepreneurial journey. Futurera Fuels wound up in 6 months and simultaneously the conversations about Monks Bouffe were taking shape.
The conversations with Julius and my brother were continuously happening and I was unconsciously narrowing my liking towards food and farming within the sustainability space as well.
So when the time was ripe and a team came along, Monks Bouffe was formed and there was nothing else at that moment that could have pulled me away from it.
How did we manage without any sector specific understanding?
Monks Bouffe was formed with an amalgamation of 3 key words – Organic Food + International Flavours + Junoon. The most important word here being Junoon. We set out to do something which we did not know much about, but what we had plenty of - was energy & determination to make it happen.
We interacted with 50+ people who had experience in setting up an organic business in India, had formed Farmer Producer Organizations or were doing great on ground work in rural India. Some of these souls ended up becoming our mentors and guiding forces.
Our ethical foundation was getting stronger by the day and once that happens, nothing can sway you away from moving forward on the path you’ve set ahead.
These conversations, meeting the right people very early on our journey and more importantly going forward with an open and non-judgmental mindset is what really helped us.
It’s a fact and I can say this with conviction – One does not need a formal education or a sector specific experience to do something. One needs the right mindset, determination and the willingness to learn without any judgments.
The transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur is something which might be different for each one of us, but the fundamentals will always be the same.
Just be sure of your decision, be determined, as the journey is not going to easy. It is never going to be how you imagine it to be, it is going to be much more adventurous and interesting.
And this in brief is why and how I transitioned from being an employee to an entrepreneur.
Comments