Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the first entrepreneurs of independent America built his wealth by laying railroads across the country. His empire was built on sheer strength and shrewd tactics involving strong arming competition until they were crushed.

Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata, who founded TATA group in late 1800s was one of the most well travelled man of his times. He had traveled to almost every continent.

Back in the day being a founder meant you had to be street smart, resourceful and willing to play in the gray territory. Protecting what you’ve built was even harder, we are talking of times when a lot of laws we take for granted weren’t written yet.

You had to be a ‘Capitalist’ to be a founder. A couple of hundred years ago, here’s what it took to be a founder:

• Deep pockets
• Being street smart
• Profits at all cost mindset
• Ability to dominate the market
• Eliminating competition by all means
• Willingness to lose it all in case of an adverse calamity (natural/man made)

It was the wild wild best of entrepreneurship. Showing any sign of weakness meant falling prey to the competition. Wealth was seen as a zero sum game. With limited resources and innovation back then, to some extend it was a zero sum game indeed.

But I want to start up today, what does it take to be a founder in today’s world?

We’re having it easy. There are challenges too, but different kind.

The OGs who built these timeless businesses (or institutions) described above, had it real tough. There were no startup ‘incubators’, innovation clubs in colleges or support of mentors. Against all odds if you managed to build a business, it attracted people who’ll do everything to pull you down.

Sure, capitalists were known to be notoriously oppressive towards employees and manipulators of law but it was the law of the land back then – which also changed with the new class of entrepreneurs like Henry Ford who introduced better pays and conditions for employees.

If you want to be a founder, there is no better time than now. Regardless of your socio-economic background, if you are having access to internet then the playing field is more leveled than it has ever been in the history of human kind. In the last 30 years what internet has done is nothing short of magic, and now we’re on the cusp of another internet like impact phenomenon with AI.

Here’s why there’s no better time than now for being a founder:

1. Abundant resource available – Internet, AI, trained people, cheap hosting. The cost of building a MVP is cheapest it has ever been. Just 20 years ago, building a MVP required renting a physical server from got-knows-where.
2. Capital – Founders no more have to rely on banks for financing to scale their business. Angel investors, friends & family, hundreds & thousands of incubators and accelerators are willing to invest if they like your idea.
3. Mentorship – The world has at least two living generations of founders who’ve built their businesses from ground up. Connecting to these people isn’t that tough (LinkedIn, email, events) to get first hand advise.
4. Tools to sell – About 50 years ago, a business owner had to either do door to door sales, radio or newspaper advertisement or set up a physical shop. Each of these could take weeks if not months to show real ROI. Today, you don’t have to do any of it. You can write in reddit communities, quora or cold reachout to potential buyers to generate initial demand. If you’ve got some budget then you can run Google/Facebook ads to capture the already existing demand. No ‘demand creation’ required.
5. Exit opportunities – The number of mergers & acquisitions happening the world is more than ever. Earlier, starting a business meant being involved in that business for life. This is no more true now.
6. Better socio economic conditions – Earlier, you had to be rich enough to sponsor initial capital or be ambitious & ruthless to climb up the social ladder to build something of your own. Overall, the world’s social economic condition has improved when compared to a hundred years ago. If you are able to read this article on a phone/laptop with an internet connection – you’re pretty decently placed for giving entrepreneurship a shot.

What does it take to be a founder – just 2 traits

There are just two traits that are non negotiable for being a founder. Everything else can be learnt along the way. Everything. Here are the traits:

• Bias for action
  
  Founders take action. They convert ideas into execution. They turn thoughts into products. They create value out of thin air. They get shit done, whatever it takes.
  
  Founders are thinkers, who convert their thoughts into a reality. They don’t merely register a domain and forget about it. They have immense bias for action which only increases over time. The perfect business plan on paper loses every time to even a half good actually executed idea. Jess Bezos exhibited immense bias for action when he started amazon. We still see he replies to customers who complain about their order by emailing him while in-parallel creating a space tech company – high bias for action.
  
  As founders continue building, the bias for action takes them to new places. They have more resources, so they use this bias for action to build new products or improve current products making them 100x better.
  
  This single trait of bias for action makes founders, founders.
  
  What Warren Buffet says about investing holds true for bias for action too.

An idiot with a bias for action can beat a genius without one.

• Patience
  
  Entrepreneurship is a long term game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
  
  You estimate you’ll get your first customer in days, but it takes weeks. Convincing talented people to work with you can take months. Reaching your first million in revenue can take years. But everything you did to achieve these firsts, compounds. So iteratively the next milestone takes less time. Compounding is a beautiful thing, but it demands patience.
  
  We often overestimate what we can achieve today, and underestimate what we can achieve over a long period of constant work. ^{Amara’s Law}
  
  Bias for action today, when combined with long term patience can create magic.

That’s it. That’s what takes to be a founder.

If it’s that easy being a founder, why isn’t everyone a founder?

If being founder is so simple, then everyone should become one. Why do startups fail if there’s so much support and opportunity available in today’s times. The odds of success are higher than a century ago, but still is a game of odds with so many more variables at play.

Here’s why you won’t become a founder:

• It’s a level playing field for all – Since its a level playing field for all, the competition has increased. This means any idea you might think of, there would be multiple similar mature executed versions of it.
  This shouldn’t stop you, because the demand also has increased. In most industries, there is a space for dozens of players doing the exact same thing.
  
• Attention span – Our generation which loves scrolling has a lower attention spans. Jumping from one idea to another without committing to one idea for a few months/years means giving half hearted attempts.
  
• Expectation mismatch – Creating value, building something from scratch, solving a problem which you always faced for yourself & others; these are a few reasons to become a founder. Wealth, seeking early retirement or getting famous usually shouldn’t be your primary expectations from building a business. Wealth is important, but is the by product of creating value.
  
• Risk averse – If you are trained with a skill which the world values, and yet unable to take the risk of starting up then most likely you’ll have a hard time being a founder. At some point during your journey as a founder, you will have to take some risk. Big or small, but some risk. Your education, skill or network is the your hedge against being a founder.
  
• Bias for action or patience – There’s no being a founder without any of these.

Screw it, let’s do it.
– Richard Branson