In Europe, there was bakeries that bake a certain number every day. At the end of the day, or when they are done, they shut shop and sit back and relax. They make a small profit every day, and use that to live.
In India, there are samosawalas or chhole bhature walas who bring a certain amount of production to the market every day. Once they have sold it, they shut shop and go home.
There is never any need to grow, diversify, increase etc.
When we started work, both at Topgain and at The Children's Post, we came from a place of happiness and content. We were not in a race. We were not chasing anything. We were doing the best that we could, as much as we could with happiness, but giving it our all. There was no stress. Just the joy of doing great, fantastic work and adding value to the world.
Today, both Topgain and The Children's Post have grown. Every day, esp on The Children's Post, we are asked questions like Growth numbers, projected growth, etc.
The thing is, we are still not chasing anything. Only rats run rat races. We are here to focus on our work and to take the paper to more children.
Growth is not an imperative for us. We have experienced that some people find chasing targets inherently joyous. We are not among them. To us, this endless chasing of targets leads to stress and not happiness.
We understand that this is not a conventional view of business. But contentment is a good part of Indian business. The samosavala is inherently Indian.
Of course, contentment precludes greatness and a place in history books. But we would rather be Nandan and Chandamama than Times of India :)
