Mahesh Muralidhar and I share AGSM as our alma mater and recently met on a panel discussing ‘the leap into entrepreneurship’. It was a Q&A session for AGSM alumni to ask interesting questions of four local founders. Afterwards we agreed to answer the same five questions to help build on the panel discussion. Mine are below and you can read Mahesh’s here.
MM: How does being a “family man” impact you as an entrepreneur?
PHSC: So I have three beautiful women in my life, a rockstar wife and two enchanting little girls. They inspire me to think differently and to do my life’s best work. My main priority as a dad and husband is to provide each of my girls with the presence they deserve each day. This is a work in progress and sometimes it’s not easy. Every team member at AirShr manages long days and it’s all too easy to get pulled into a call or an email thread when you’re at home. Actively investing effort in being present and practicing mindfulness with my girls, the AirShr family and our customers is paying off big-time.
I think it’s also important to acknowledge that integrating family life with entrepreneurship can heighten the need to provide for one’s family. This is difficult to ignore and is, in my opinion, perfectly natural (just ask any entrepreneur with children).
The bottom line is that being a family man while launching new ventures is difficult but it’s by no means impossible.
MM: What is the funniest thing that has happened at AirShr?
PHSC: We use humour to circuit-break stressful situations. There are too many to recount 🙂
MM: You can pick one entrepreneurial stalwart (eg Steve Jobs, Richard Branson) to join the AirShr team. Who and why?
PHSC: Chris Barton, the founder of Shazam. He found the best talent on the planet to help solve anytime music recognition in 1999 (eight years before the first iPhone was released and nine years before the Apple App Store came online). Since then he has worked at Google and now Drop Box. Chris is humble, curious and industrious. It would be awesome to work together.
MM: If you had one point of advice for someone considering starting their own venture, what would it be?
PHSC: Don’t make the mistake of actioning what you can control. I typically hear would-be founders moving quickly to spend money on establishing a company, finding intellectual property lawyers and buying ingredients and components to build a product. If you have what you think is a killer idea, experiment, experiment, experiment! It’s never been cheaper to test and validate a hypothesis about a need you think someone might have.
MM: Who provides regular inspiration to you (could be an author, personality, friend) to help your deliver on your mission?
PHSC: Fred Wilson at Union Square Venture. Fred has written something on his blog every day since September 2003. I receive an email each day on a topic that’s either interesting or relevant to me as a founder. Highly recommend signing up to his blog.