Three years ago on Dec 2 & 3, I was participating in a competition called Startup Springboard held by K-lab Myanmar at my university.
It was a two-day workshop where students join to share their ideas, form teams, and draw business plans. The workshop aims for participants to gain hands-on experience and finds out if their startup ideas are viable. Organizers invited many business experts who will give presentations on certain topics.
Before getting things started, there was an ice-breaking session. We briefly introduced ourselves to everyone. After some time thinking about ideas, everyone presented their own ideas on stage. Everyone was selling their ideas and ideas which received many votes were selected for the next step. Organizers selected six ideas. Idea owners became team leaders and participants whose ideas weren’t selected had to choose among those six ideas according to their interest.
There came one presentation after another from business experts. After that, there was a brainstorming session. Business experts helped us and gave new ideas and approaches we never thought of before. After listening to their approaches, I felt a ray of light came into my blind spot and my third eye was opened. I still remember that I was in awe and very surprised.
We played team games, worked on our chosen idea, listened to topics given by experts, developed a business plan, prepared PowerPoint, ate, and drank juices. Life was easy and we were happy. Among many team games we played, there is a game I still remember till now.
The organizers drew a large rectangle which has 9 rows and 4 columns on the floor. There was a total of 36 squares. We had to go through those squares from one side to another. Organizers said, “There is only one route to successfully pass through the squares. A person can only continue to step on a square which has a connection with the square he/she is standing on”. We tried and we were able to find the correct squares till the fourth row. We stepped on every possible square on the fifth row but they weren’t the correct one. Everyone was having a hard time.
I thought of something and told my team members that if there was no correct square on the fifth row, we should try to step on an empty space outside the rectangle near the fifth row which had a connection with the correct square on the fourth row. Nobody cared what I said and they continued to try to step on their same old squares which weren’t correct. Since I couldn’t gain my team members’ trust, when my turn came, I initiated to step on the empty space outside the rectangle. The organizer looked at me and said that it was correct. I also had some doubts but when I heard that it was correct, I was shaking with happiness. Other team members followed me and then we successfully reached the other side.
After the game was finished, organizers told us that the purpose of the game was to make participants think outside of the box. But what I realized is, “For some people, thinking out of the box is easy, but gaining trust from others is very difficult. To gain trust, mere words don’t work and I must prove with actions. Everybody is okay with their same old ways of doing things. Nobody wants to step on uncertainty until there is someone who initiates to take the risk. Holding doubts deep in the heart but continues to follow the idea knowing that it will probably be a failure and then slowly building trust with people and gaining followers is what defines a true entrepreneur.” Well, come to think of it, one good thing about my university is that it encourages entrepreneurship.
Since trust is difficult to gain and easy to break, I look forward to playing more “Trust” games.
Dec 4, 2019
