There are these patterns that keeps coming along with any successful entrepreneurial journey.

  1. Exposure
  2. Dropping out from the schooling system
  3. Hard work
  4. Learning from your mistakes
  5. Use low times as a breeding ground for achieving the highs.

And lastly, you don't always need to solve a problem, a pain point felt by others to be an entrepreneur. You don't need to always come up with an orignal, novel idea. You can simply be an entrepreneur to solve your own pain point which is the need to have a comfortable living and need to have fun in the expansion game! Bhimjibhai was not solving any pain point with any original idea. It was simple. I need more money and I am having fun.

EXPOSURE

Back in those times, a newspaper was like present day Internet. It was the way to make oneself aware of what developments are happening around on local, national and global scale. It was the way to get exposure to the world around you. However, Internet is exponentially more powerful than the old newspaper obvioulsy. So, we are in better times. This is good.

DROPPING OUT

The co-relation between dropping out and an entrepreurial lifetyle is quite high. But, I think there is a confounding variable in play here. The need for freedom. The need to break free from irrational demands and bad logic. The need to just do your own thing with no tolerance for bullshits. Its a personality trait which leads to both. Dropping out and becoming an entrepreneur.

Again, education(learning) and schooling are two very different things.
Bhimjibhai could do all the problems and read better than the best, but the school dismissed him for attendance. What's the point of having attendance after all? It's means to an end, not a goal in itself.
We don't need schools to get ourselves educated really.
The present schooling system , from primary, secondary, senior, college to universities are all getting in the way of great learners.
This is mainly because of schooling system's inherent centralised and authoritative setup which in turn is because of it's colonial roots. The british wanted to breed slaves not leaders. They deliberately wanted to keep the power of validation to themselves. They wanted to keep the power of setting your limits in life, what you are worth to the british empire.
As, in the movie "school of rock" they put it, It's the Man. Independent countries don't need schools. Independent countries need playgrounds for experential learning. If India has to progress from a nation of followers to a nation of leaders, we need more entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and all of this can't be achieved in a scalable way through the current schooling system.

No one has the right to bully you on what you should learn, by when you should learn it and in what pace. Not your parents, not your college. not your employer. But just you.

-- Anubhav Sinha

They treat students like slaves in the present schooling system.
Learners shouldn't live their life on the whims of a school teacher, the principal, Board or the Ministry.
You don't need validation from such stupid systems to set your worth.
It will be your exhibition of skills that will set your value in the real world.

Access to knowledge and learning is a fundamental right.
Don't care if it's on the list of the policies of a government or a nation.

With MOOCs coming along, things look promising. But, then there is this dependency of research labs on the schooling system.
You have to go through a specicifc path of grades, colleges and universities to be able to use a lab.
All of this can be solved by decentralisation of the schooling system.
One of my projects, "Center for Science and Engineering" aims to do just that! I am hoping to solve it by using Blockchain etc.

HARD WORK

It's totally okay to do double shifts to earn double the income or high valued skills to fuel your engine that is taking you to a better future.

LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES

This is as important as learning new skills for your success. Else doing same mistakes will keep diluting your pace.

LOWS AS A BREEDING GROUND TO POWER THE HIGHS

Well, that's the best use you can make of the time when you are at a low. Reinvent yourself.
Learn new skills which is more valuable than your old set of skills.
And be the best in your field.