THE LAW OF STARTING A BUSINESS

By M. Suyanto

When I went back to my birthplace on Id holiday, I happened to see my friend who aspired to become a businessman. A year later, I met him again, asking “Have you become a businessman”, and he replied “Not yet. I don’t have enough capital to start a business”. However, he told me that he still aspired to become an businessman. On the following Id holiday, I met him again, and he had not become a businessman yet.
What my friend had aspired reminded me of the story of Abu Nawas, who said in front of  King Harun Al Rasyid that he would fly in spite of the fact that he had no wings or equipments. Hearing the remarks of Abu Nawas, the King said to himself, “Well this is my opportunity to defeat him”. Then, the King said “Oh, what did you say?”. “Your Majesty, if you make me a high stage, I will fly from the stage without any wings or any other equipments”, replied Abu Nawas. “Well, I have to make you a high stage soon, and after the next Friday prayers, prepare yourself for flying”, said the King . “I’m ready, Your Majesty”, replied Abu Nawas. A week later, soon after finishing Friday prayers, people gathered in the square to see Abu Nawas , who would fly from a high stage. Soon after, the King arrived in the square, being hailed by his people, who then all approached Abu Nawas, who was waiting for them under the tower platform with the height of about 12 meters. “Are you ready, Abu?”, said the King. “Yes, I am, Your Majesty”, replied Abu Nawas. Then, Abu Nawas climbed up to the top of the high platform and stood up, being greeted with anticipation. The people muttered to themselves, “How Abu Nawas will fly from the stage without any wings or any equipments, and if he falls, he must die”. Furthermore, Abu Nawas kept on lifting one foot, replacing the one foot by lifting the other, swinging and waving his arms as a bird that will fly. Abu Nawas did such actions repeatedly, so the people became bored and annoyed to see what he was doing, and they impatiently shouted, “It is time you flew, Abu, as we heard you said that”. “No, I will not because I did not say that but just said I will fly”, claimed Abu Nawas. What we can infer from the story is that you will never be a businessman if you think to be a businessman but do nothing.

The law of starting a business is like the friction law of an object.  A still object tends to have a relatively greater  friction than a moving object. The greatest friction occurs when the object is about to move. Similarly, we have major obstacles when starting a business, and after running the business, the obstacles get relatively smaller. The biggest obstacle occurs during the first day of running the business. A neighbor of mine once told me that before he began opening a shop, many people looked down on him by saying  that it would be impossible for him to succeed in running the shop because he did not have sufficient capital to do so. But,  they said nothing after he had managed to do so. That is the law of starting a business.

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