Last Saturday (21st November) I went to attend Startup Saturday Pune (#SSPune) that is held every month at NCL Innovation Park, Pune. It was an event I had been wanting to attend for quite some time now, but always had to skip, either because I was not in town, or some other task/event took higher priority. This time, however, I made sure nothing came up as an excuse for non-attendance. So, I was eagerly looking forward to the event.
The topic was‘Bootstrapping and Scaling Challenges’. The event had some relatively successful entrepreneurs come and share their experiences. Apart from that we also had sharing of ideas/pitches as well, from some upcoming startups. While I was an audience to some good thoughts & ideas being shared out there, one thing that stood out for me starkly was the lack of public speaking & presentation skills in most of the speakers who addressed the audience there. It left me wondering, how many startups lose potential funding because they are unable to pitch it well due to lack of such skills. Going by what I saw that day, I can definitely hazard a guess that it would be quite a significant percentage. Communication has already been identified as one of the essential entrepreneurial skills for success and the importance of crisp communication to potential investors can hardly be underrated. The 10-15 minutes out there is all a person has.
I have earlier blogged about why public speaking & presentation skill is an important skill to acquire quite early in your professional life. In fact I wouldn’t be wrong to state that it is one of the most important leadership skills to possess as you progress in your career. Whatever be your future aspiration, this skill, if learnt well will never fail you.
My purpose of this blog is not to critique the ideas that were shared, or to play down the success or aspirations of the people present out there, or for that matter the event organizers who I believe are doing an excellent job. Nor is it to sell our, once a quarter, high impact presentation skills workshop. My intention is to simply request all you professionals/entrepreneurs/wannabe entrepreneurs out there to please please please go and get trained in public speaking & presentation skills. Do it from any place of your choice, at any cost you deem fit (you would come across options of a few thousand INR to a lakh+), but please do acquire this skill as soon as you can. Think of it as self-investment that would pay you back (exponentially) over the years, irrespective of whether you go back to a ‘job’ or continue down the path of entrepreneurship. And when you acquire the skills and thereafter realize the benefits, you can send me a thank you note 🙂 !
And yes, I do intend to attend the Startup Saturday Pune events in future as well. The techie in me would find it hard to resist being part of the idea churning that takes place.
