Have Unending Zeal
Nothing great is ever achieved without zeal.
Entrepreneurs are highly enthusiastic about their dreams.
Man with Unending Zeal: Kishore Biyani
A true Indian retail czar, Kishore Biyani is the Group CEO of Future Group and Managing Director of Pantaloon Retail. Popularly known as KB, he is the man who triggered the concept of retail supermarkets in India like Big Bazaar, Pantaloon, Mega Mart and Bangalore Central. With his sheer ‘zealous instincts’ he created Future Group, a USD 1 billion enterprise and spearheaded the emergence of Pantaloon Retail as the leading retailer in the country. The story of Big Bazaar is a story of unbridled entrepreneurship, the courage of conviction, and the unending zeal for change and innovation. It is also a testimony to the new face of retail in India where now, a plethora of hypermarkets, supermarkets, departmental stores, shopping malls, and discount stores compete with another. A typical Big Bazaar store is seen as a one-stop destination for products belonging to a wide range of categories including food products, lifestyle, fashion, furniture, electronics, leisure, and entertainment. The retail space of these stores in metros can range between 50,000 square feet and 160,000 square feet. Since its launch in 2001 in Kolkata, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, Big Bazaar stores have spread across 80 towns and cities across the country over the past decade. Not surprisingly, Big Bazaar has strong competition to other major retailers in the domestic market such as Reliance, Tata Group, RPGGroup, and AV Birla Group.
Starting a business is a tough decision to make—a decision filled with the excitement of embarking on a new journey but also filled with concerns about the risks ahead and the uncertainty involved. Usually starting a business means working long hours; often well into the night during the phase of building the business’s foundation.
In order to keep working hard, one has to be motivated. A lot of people tend to dismiss the importance of zeal. They may acknowledge it as a factor, but not as an important factor—at least not as important as capabilities, a good business plan, etc. But what is zeal? To simplify: Zeal is the desire to do things. From a business perspective zeal is considered to be “the internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in entrepreneurs to continually have interest in and be committed to a job, role, or subject and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal.”
For an entrepreneur, zeal is the driving force of it all; it is what makes him get up in the morning ready to work those long hours and execute a business plan or make the most out of his capabilities. Since the first few months of a new business are usually also the most critical, it is important to recognize the impact zeal has on the future of business.
At the core of zeal lies passion. If zeal is the motor that gets the car moving, then passion is the fuel. Sure, there are other factors that can increase zeal—such as incentives (usually in the form of cash). But speaking from experience, it is usually noticed that there is a difference in the quality of work of someone who does something because it is his or her passion and someone who does something because he or she gets a lot of money to do it.
Passion also means dedication. A lot of new enterprises close because their owners lose faith and give up too early or aren’t willing to work harder. On the other hand, there are many success stories of people who say, “I couldn’t give up on my dream, so I kept going and eventually succeeded.”
All in all, zeal and passion will help an entrepreneur get things done. And getting things done is crucial when a business is in its infancy. When an entrepreneur is zealous and shows the love for what he does, customers will notice, and they will reward for it.
So as an entrepreneur, when opening a new business, make sure you have a lot of fuel of zeal to keep the motor of your venture running, and it will help you reach the zenith.