Leadership Journeys [34] - Vinod Kumar- "An entrepreneur needs to be comfortable with ambiguity and things going wrong"

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.Vinod shares in the interview how he and his wife started a coffee house in 2015 to provide a sip of happiness to every customer, and to enhance the experience around coffee. He shares how they navigated covid and are now looking to expand, and how they have leveraged technology during covid. He also talks about caring for people and building a team on a solid foundation of values.You can find Vinod at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kvinod77/https://www.vinodkumar.me/In the interview, Vinod sharesWe knew immediately that was the first opportunity that we gotta pursue it. So we put our eggs in that basket and we went forward with it.It took me five years to find the connection and when I found it, It clicked immediately because we were then able to leverage my background.Most business schools don't necessarily focus on running a small business. This is what we realized.only when you make an attempt to actually get closer to the customer, understand the customer, you understand the challenges in it and the actual value of why it is so important.We never thought we will be delivering a cup of cappuccino. Pizza is one thing. But delivering a cappuccino is a totally different problem that we never thought we'd be delivering a cappuccino, but now we do. In hindsight, everything is easy and clear, but when you're going through the process it's a mess.The second thing that motivates us is we feel like we need to take care of the people That work for us. And it's important to take care of them because quite literally, their livelihood is dependent on the business.an entrepreneur needs to be very comfortable with ambiguity. I think that's the thing. You have to be comfortable with ambiguity and you have to be comfortable with things going wrong and things not going according to plan. And you have to know what the non-negotiables are, You have to pick the right fight, cuz when things go wrong and you have to fight the circumstances, it's easy to lose energy.