Are you a wannabe entrepreneur who is a fan of  James Bond films? If your answer is YES  there is a lesson in entrepreneurship. There  is  one quality that the fictional character James Bond posses which is worth emulating, if you don’t have it already.

Now don’t jump to conclusions. I am not talking about  his ability to beat the hell out of the villains. Nor am I talking about his sexcapades with women nor the way he loves his martinis-shaken , but not stirred.  I am talking about a very deeper quality which should be intrinsic to every wannabe entrepreneur.

You may now be wondering why I am mentioning James Bond instead of the management Gurus like Peter Drucker,  Malcom Gladwell,  Peter Porter  or the Indian C K Prahlad.  The reason is simple.  In the series of posts that I am writing,  under the column THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY LESSONS LEARNT BY AN EMPLOYEE TURNED ENTREPRENEUR I want to avoid using management theories and jargons as far as possible. This is because the target audience of my posts are employees who are toying with the idea of leaving  their jobs and becoming entrepreneurs.  I don’t want their amygdala ( section of the brain that is responsible for fight or flight response) to get short circuited by the jargons.

And how does amygdala function? Imagine that you are going to an important office meeting where more than 100 people are present. You know your job well but have a phobia for public speaking. If you boss suddenly asks you to speak about your project you may feel tongue tied. You may get panic attack and feel like disappearing from the meeting on the pretext of feeling unwell. This is your amygdala  prompting you to take a flight.

Now take a slightly different situation.  Imagine that you have to make a presentation of your work at your office meeting. You know that if you do not make a good presentation you might lose a job or face demotion. What you are likely to do? You will work whole night preparing for the presentation. Though you may not be a good speaker, you will practice enough to ensure that you do not let down your boss.  This is your amygdullah prompting you to fight.

So what is this quality of James Bond which is very important in entrepreneurship?   It is “non reactiveness’- the ability to stay unruffled under stress.  Whether a villain is pointing   a gun  at his temple or an industrial  lazer beam near his groin, Bond remains cool, confident and non reactive.

As an entrepreneur, the chances of you facing gunshots, industrial lazers or any other death- defying situations are remote. But there will be umpteen situations where you could be facing stress.  It could be cashflow problems, lost customers, disputes with partners, increased competition, staffing problems, supply chain breakdown and high work load. Entrepreneurs  have to grapple with the uncertainty of being responsible for any decision they make. All these can take a toll on your sleep, trigger cortisol which is stress hormone into blood stream and affect health and fitness.

Lesson No 3 : Learn to be nonreactive. If you get too excited when you crack a big deal, then you will also be devastated if you lose one.