Lakshmi Vishnu And The Start-Up

 In Hindu mythology, Lakshmi (wealth) chases Vishnu. Vishnu has two sides: Kama and Yama. Kama is the irresponsible dreamer of love and life. Yama is the cautious accountant who watches over debt and death.

Kama is the CEO who dreams big and attracts followers. Yama is the CFO who has to keep an eye on the balance sheet.

Kama has garuda-drishti: the bird’s eye view and focuses on the woods not the trees. Yama has sarpa-drishti: the serpent’s eye view and counts the trees and ignores the forest.

The two are eternally churning the ocean of milk, each one knowing when to pull and when to let go.

In your start up, when you focus on your vision ,incur sunk costs,concentrate on acquiring customers and growing the top line you behave as Kama.On the other hand when you focus on limiting risks,cutting costs,managing or reducing debt,maintaining margins and profitability you are behaving like Yama. As long as you manage to strike a balance between both types of activities you are likely to be Lakshmi-pati (wealthy).If Yama stifles Kama,the business will not get off the ground and if Kama gets out of hand,the business is likely to be run into the ground.