14 lessons for an entrepreneur from Indian mythology — The Team
Build a balanced team
Hindu mythology talks about Trinity: Brahma — The Creator, Vishnu — The Preserver and Shiva — The Destroyer.
Brahma, the creator of the universe is associated with knowledge — Saraswati. On creating the world he gets mesmerized by his creation that he follows it passionately, pursuing only the possession of materialistic truth and believing in his subjective world, ignoring the ultimate truth of the soul.
Shiva is the God who does not believe in illusions but seeks the soul, the only Truth. Thus, he shuns the notion of the world, society, rules, and culture. He prefers to stay alone on the icy mountains of Kailash, wearing a tiger-skin, deep into meditation and smeared with ash. Through the continuous Yoga of eons, he becomes an infinite source of spiritual power — Tapa and is associated with power — Shakti. By ignoring Brahma’s creation, he thus destroys it and so he is called the Destroyer.
Vishnu is the God who recognizes the illusion created by Brahma but at the same time recognizes and accepts the concept of the soul of Shiva. He believes in uplifting Brahma and making him realize the Truth of Soul. He thus becomes the Preserver of Brahma’s world as well as the endorser of Shiva’s soul. He’s the God of the householders and stays in the boundaries of culture, dresses like people with family and is associated with wealth — Lakshmi, which is indispensable for running a household.
While building a team, look for the three types of people — You need creators (Brahma), who like to build new things with a constant leaning (Saraswati). These are innovators and visionaries, who want to stay ahead of the competition by thinking and building new features and products.
You also need people who dare to destroy the old to make way for the new (Shiva). These are the people who believe things are ephemeral, and to reinvent, you need to be bold enough to let go of the old. Such decisions need courage and power (Shakti), especially since you are introducing chaos to the seemingly smooth world order by disturbing your cash-cows or steady sources of revenue.
And you need preservers (Vishu), who understand the importance of maintaining the current order. They understand the cash flow (Lakshmi) being generated by your current products and services, is what will sustain your business and eventually enable you to fund the new.
It’s the right balance between Creators, Destroyers, and Preservers that will propel your company forward in the right direction.
Choose your team wisely
As we reached the back outer rim of temple walls, the stones started speaking. The stories of ancient Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata are carved in intricate details. One such story is about Yudhishthira, eldest of the Pandava brothers, visiting Krishna for help just before the great war between Pandavas and Kauravas. Coincidently exactly at the same time, Duryodhana who is the eldest of Kauravas also goes. Krishna, the wise one, asks them to either choose between him and his entire army. Duryodhana thinks an entire army is much better than only Krishna on his side.
A team of a few great people, who are really good at what they do is sufficient to build a solid company.
Yudhishthira chooses Krishna to be on the Pandavas side. The Pandavas win the war.
In the previous article, I talked about “The Product.” The next article is about “You”.
This article is part of a series that describe my experiences working with entrepreneurs. If you are looking for a product engineering company to build your next solution, please contact us at info@47billion.com. If you found this article useful, please hit that clap button below.
