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ShopBeing Money-minded
Deepak Satwalekar and Sadhguru look at whether being money-minded is a bad thing, and how money isn't something that needs to play on your mind if you just see how to manage it well enough.
The participants of INSIGHT 2012 came together for an Alumni Meet on 22nd June 2013 at the Isha Yoga Center. The purpose of the meet was to discuss the impact of their learnings on businesses and self, as well as address any roadblocks they encountered while scaling up. In this extract, the panel considers the merits of being “money-minded.”
Being “Money-Minded”
Question: I am someone who is a first generation entrepreneur. I come from a middle-class background and, very often, I feel that I don't have the money mindset that entrepreneurs require. I want to ask: is it possible to develop that quality, and if not, how do I build a team where as a business we retain our edge even though I may not have sufficient qualities?
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Deepak Satwalekar: If you are saying you are not money-minded, I think you are starting off from a significant advantage. Unfortunately most people say “I want to get into business because I want to make money.” I think making money is something which will be a result of all the things that you do. You may not want to change your mindset into making money. But what you would definitely need is someone you trust on your team who will count the money, who will keep track of it.
So, I am not saying that you don’t do it at all but please don’t become money conscious saying “I’ll do whatever I need to do to make the buck.” You will make money but it shouldn’t be the objective. The objective is that at the end of the day you are trying to deliver a service or a product which a customer wants. Identifying that, delivering it in the manner, at the time, and at the price that people want is what you should be focusing your mind on.
Sadhguru: I don’t know what money-minded means exactly. That means in my understanding you are only interested in the consequence, not the process. Those who are only interested in the consequence and not in the process, they will only dream about it, they won’t do it because consequence is a happening subject to so many things.
The most important thing is, an entrepreneur becomes an entrepreneur because he wants to create something that he thinks must happen. If you want to create something, money is a part of it. Without money no activity gets oiled to move properly. So, as an entrepreneur you don’t have to have a thought of money in your mind; just wanting to create something. Like Deepak said, you need a money manager like there are material managers. This is also one of the materials to make things happen.
At the end of your life it is only about what you have created. Whatever you have gathered, you can’t take it with you. It is only what you have created that matters. So, as he said it’s a great advantage not to think about money.