<input type&equals;"hidden" value&equals;"" data-essbisPostContainer&equals;"" data-essbisPostUrl&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;yodoozy&period;com&sol;creative-entrepreneur-or-what-it-is-like-to-self-impose-depression&sol;" data-essbisPostTitle&equals;"Creative Entrepreneur&colon; Or What It Is Like To Self Impose Depression" data-essbisHoverContainer&equals;""><p>I’ve never been a financial savvy guy&period; I’ve not had a keen eye on investments&comma; or on numbers&period; Stockpiling money&comma; or what the &OpenCurlyQuote;smart’ people call financial robustness has always felt a bit vulgar&comma; or selfish to put it mildly&period; For me it&&num;8217&semi;s always been about people&semi; passionate&comma; brilliant&comma; rebellious creative people&period; And they can come from any sphere of life&period; A chef who finds a way fight for ethical practices in an assembly line culture of fast food&comma; a musician who is more bothered about originality instead of selling out as soon as possible&comma; or a writer who chooses to use words as information instead of pandering&period; And I’ve associated with them&comma; in work and in spirit&period; Because I truly believed that if five smart folks were locked in a room&comma; they will find a way to break down the walls&period; In both literal and lateral terms&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s always been about the bigger&comma; better ideas&semi; about bigger&comma; better brains&period; I truly believed that the world will see value of a great idea&comma; and choose it over the good ones&period; That if I can somehow find a niche that is primed for mainstream&comma; there will be people who will find the same enthusiasm&comma; and share the spirit of eureka&comma; and no&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m not referring in any way the mediocre consumer goods brand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But I’ve realised this over the last few years that ideas don’t matter&comma; honesty even less so&period; I’ve learned that people with investment capabilities can give less of an eff about passion if that was physically possible&period; They care about mad creative people even less so&period; In fact&comma; I’ve been repeatedly told not to be honest&comma; to never mention that I&&num;8217&semi;m fiscally challenged or that I think money will come if the idea is great&period; I’ve been warned about how to dress&comma; how to speak&comma; when to keep quiet&period; I’ve been told not to come across as someone overtly passionate as to not scare off the oh so elusive VC&comma; or seed funder or angel investor or whatever self-fellating names they want to be called as&period; Because they don&&num;8217&semi;t want passion&comma; they don&&num;8217&semi;t want someone on fire&comma; they don&&num;8217&semi;t want someone who is all heart&period; They don’t want beautifully crafted pitch decks&comma; they don&&num;8217&semi;t want art&comma; they don&&num;8217&semi;t want design&period; What they want is an excel sheet&period; They don&&num;8217&semi;t want genre bending&comma; vertical creating ideas&semi; they could give less of a bird’s hind-side about them&comma; irrespective of all the jargons they throw around&period; They want projections&comma; numbers and lofty ideas boxed in to the smallest row &amp&semi; column&period; Logic is irrelevant&comma; common sense is irrelevant&comma; data is irrelevant&period; The only relevant thing is what they see&comma; and how they see it&period; And that’s fine&period; That’s absolutely fine&period; No one cares about a mad man screaming about intangible&comma; when the world is run and ruined by &OpenCurlyQuote;smart’ people with financial skills &amp&semi; &OpenCurlyQuote;smarter’ investment bankers&period; They know how to make money through the power of arithmetic&comma; and thats all that matters&period; This percentage there&comma; that percentage here&semi; Boom&excl; Profit&period; Its all a numbers game&period; So it’s fine&period; Turns out the only way a creative person can scratch their itch and go free is by saving up&comma; using their own money and persevere to a place where the same numbers people find value in their endeavours and figure out a way to milk it to their benefit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If I sound extremely naive&comma; stupid or completely impractical&semi; that’s because I do realise that I am&period; But I’m not supposed to be otherwise&comma; am I&quest; No one expects Warren Buffet to ace cubism&comma; or Tim Cook to write a sonnet&period; Then what is this insanity where a writer&comma; an artist&comma; a musician with a dream and a potentially brilliant idea also needs to have the financial wizardry of a retired banker&quest; I call them wankers actually&period; Because through these fifteen odd years of me building brands&comma; I’ve come across CEOs &amp&semi; CMOs &amp&semi; COOs who can’t hardly contain their smugness&comma; or wait to instantly judge you when they realise that you aren&&num;8217&semi;t savvy in their skills&comma; that you actually value people more than money&comma; or that there are actual ethical lines you wont cross&period; Oh the disdain&semi; but its actually extremely motivating&period; It’s actually freeing to not see your team&comma; yourself or your subordinates as more than head-counts that you need to bill the client on&comma; to see them more than work hour multipliers&comma; and as people&period; I have never understood this culture&comma; of time sheets&comma; of man hours&semi; because it’s really NOT a system&period; A dedicated resource will work first and fore mostly for themselves&comma; and then for you&period; It’s immeasurable how long it takes to get to a better idea&comma; a bigger concept&period; So boxing that person in to timesheets is in every way counterproductive&period; And the person who is happily complying to this system&comma; is doing so because it helps them not do their job&comma; since the quantifying nature of what they produce is quantity and not quality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I’m ranting and raving because it costs nothing to do so&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m sure there will be others who find themselves on the opposite end of my belief system&period; And that&&num;8217&semi;s absolutely fine&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not here to change your opinion&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know you&comma; so I could give a damn&period; This is to reach out to the fence-sitters and the ones who disagree to turning talent into numbers&period; Because numbers are demeaning&comma; numbers are void of emotions&comma; numbers are a very biased way of looking at ideas&period; Mostly because numbers are quantified through the lens of today&comma; the dreamers are always ahead of that&period; And finally&comma; numbers can&&num;8217&semi;t predict&comma; they can only assume&semi; numbers cannot calculate what doesn’t exist&comma; they can only tell you what’s already been done&period; I effing hate numbers&comma; and people who box themselves and demean others by turning people into nothing more than decimals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The idea is dead&period; Long live the idea&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignleft size-full wp-image-3395" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;yodoozy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;225691&lowbar;10153404920201603&lowbar;8151931693690591084&lowbar;n-e1510518109731&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"800" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>Guest Editor&colon; Mr&period; Abhishake Das &&num;8211&semi; Founder&comma; Creative Director &&num;8211&semi; Orwellian Dreams<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;