Friday, March 30, 2012

Do home loans kill entrepreneurship ?


Who doesn’t want to start some venture of their own? Majority of the people are in jobs and a big number of people do not like what they do. If they had a choice, they would really run away in this very moment. But our responsibilities in life and the situation we create for ourselves makes sure that we are stuck and can not get out of the rat race. We see so many people who want to work in start-ups, many people who really want to do something which they really love and enjoy even if it does not pay a lot but it’s not possible for lot of people to simply quit and start something of their own.Does home loan kill entrepreuneurship ?
One of the co-founders of Flipkart, Binny Bansal made an interesting comment that Home loan kills entrepreneurship.
India is definitely happening and there are a lot of opportunities in different fields. If you are thinking of starting up, this is the best time. But don’t take a home loan,that actually kills entrepreneurship. You can never get out of it. – Binny Bansal , co-founder flipkart.com (via)
Home loan is a big commitment, especially in a family where there is one earning member. People take jobs, get married, get a home loan, car loan etc, have kids in between and life becomes so “formula driven”. Income has to be earned and expenses have to be taken care. Risk of job loss, income loss due to medical emergencies and similar kind of risks are on the minds of a people who are paying for home loan – and this pressure kills the dreams of doing something of his own and the natural thinking then becomes – “Not an issue – Let me earn for next X years and once I retire, I will live all my dreams”. I am not sure if it really works at the end or not.
There can’t be a bigger liability than owning a house on Loan
Santosh Navlani of moneysights.com confirms in one of his comments, that saw same kind of thing while he was hiring people.
I am an entrepreneur & meet many people who at times are potential employees for my start-up venture. Now, most of these house-owners even if they are “excited & thrilled”, don’t join a start-up which would offer them great earning potential in the future because of the uncertainties that a start-up job brings to their income. Simply because they have a huge liability!
If one factors the cost of “forgoing” the pursuit dreams, I guess there can’t be a bigger liability than owning a house on loan. I have seen people getting stuck in wrong jobs where they sacrifice their long-term future by satisfying the urge of saving the rent. And yes, you don’t decide to pursue a dream of start-up or a job-switch by thinking extremely hard on it. It just happens that you are not able to take the job anymore. The last thing one wants then is fear of home-loan coming in way.
So what you do if you are young enough, unmarried and want to taste entrepreneurship? This is the right time to take the plunge and take the risk, so that you have that cushion to come back in the game if you fail. Once you take a home loan and are married, life is full of commitments and you will not be excited enough to start something on your own or join a more fun (low paying – at least in starting years) job. One of the friend who didn’t want to reveal his identity shared with me on Facebook.
When I was 25, working as a software engineer at Hexaware Mumbai in 2002, earning Rs. 25,000 per month, I quit my job and went to Goa, following my dream and started a completely new career stream at an income of Rs 4,000 p.m. At that time, I was single, did not have any home loan or other commitments and that certainly helped otherwise I may not have been able to take that jump.
Interestingly, when I met a few ex-colleagues from software industry recently, to my surprise, I figured that not only I earn more or equal to them, but am also much happier because I am enjoying what I’m doing. They confessed to not enjoying their jobs and feel that as software professionals working late nights to meet client calls in US, long daily commute to office etc. they felt as though 10 years of their personal life was “sucked” by their jobs.
Conclusion
There is saying – “If there is a will, there is a way” and a lot of people I talked about on this topic, said that if a person has the guts, vision and passion, he can make it real, even if he has huge debt!. But we are talking about the masses here (majority of people) and for most of the people it’s really difficult to take that kind of risk, even thought they have huge passion and mindset- the situation just does not ALLOW IT.
Do you really agree to it ?
Would you like to share about your experience and thoughts on this topic ? Do you really think that home loan (or any such kind of huge responsibility) really kills entrepreneurs and stops people to explore low paying but hugely satisfying careers ? Really ?

16 comments:

  1. Hey...

    Check out this site for some interesting parenting dilemmas:

    http://breezermum.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Ashwini,

    Very interesting observation. I kind of agree with the observation. More responsibilities and liabilities one has, more risk averse one becomes. As one starts having more commitments, you try to analyze too many aspects of a venture instead of taking a plunge. And as someone rightly pointed out, you need to gather courage and take decision at one go. I am currently at crossroads in my life (though, have not taken home loan, so that way better off) where I need to choose which way I want to go..let's see how it works out.

    Best Regards
    Dhwanil Desai
    http://valueinvestinginpractice.blogspot.in/

    ReplyDelete
  3. The way of your writing that was good.....It is important to remember that not all mortgage lenders have the same mortgage products.


    home loan

    ReplyDelete
  4. Agree. Its not only home loans some sort of financial commitment prevent us in chasing our dreams. We were forced to satisfy financial needs first...

    ReplyDelete
  5. The information on home laons is good and I am sure that it will clear some of the doubts of the people for getting this loan.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dealers, Auction Houses or Private Sales. Your choice when you buy trucks with Iloans Direct, Australia.



    --
    personal loan calculator

    ReplyDelete
  7. Its good to be here, very nice post, the content is amazing, keep posting friend it will be very helpful for everyone, Thanks for sharing. I really liked it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. We help you with a loan

    Loan Offer (private individuals, traders, entrepreneurs, civil servants, etc ...)
    - Annual interest rate: 3%.
    - Type of offer
    * Credit School
    * Personal Loan\Business Loan
    * Home Loan
    * Auto Loan
    * Investment Loan
    * Acquisition of credit
    For these above mentioned issues, please contact me via e-mail, because I very open and happy to help will be.All email needed a loan forward to

    Email: rivafinanceloanlimited@gmail.com
    TEL;+919986755679
    Best Regard
    Chris Oyas

    ReplyDelete
  9. Do not use all of these Private Money Lender here.They are located in Nigeria, Ghana ,Turkey, France and Israel.My name is Margret Buchan, I am from United State. Have you been looking for a loan?Do you need an urgent personal or business loan?contact Morris And Company Trust Fund Limited he help me with a loan of $800.000 some days ago after been scammed of $12000 from a woman claiming to be a loan lender but i thank God today that i got my loan worth $800.000.Feel free to contact the company for a genuine financial service.Website: www.morristrustfundlimited.com Email:morristrustfundlimited@hotmail.com USA Florida +18503666201

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice Post.Apply Best Personal Loan at CreditNation and CreditNation is an online money related administration supplier of all the budgetary items like advances Best Personal Loan,Credit Cards In India and a great deal more.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I just happened to read your blog and I intend to share this across with my friends.

    But do give your comments a view, so many spams!

    ReplyDelete
  12. We have sell some products of different custom boxes.it is very useful and very low price please visits this site thanks and please share this post with your friends. personal loans for poor credit

    ReplyDelete
  13. I was surfing the Internet for information and came across your blog. I am impressed by the information you have on this blog. It shows how well you understand this subject. emergencyloanlenders.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. I haven’t any word to appreciate this post.....Really i am impressed from this post....the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us. lowfeeinstallmentloans.com

    ReplyDelete