Applications of The Big Bang Theory: An Entrepreneurial approach

Allow me to break your hearts a little and let you in on a little secret. This blog is not about The Big Bang Theory as proposed by scientists but rather The Big Bang Theory created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. That’s right y’all I am talking about the sitcom!

They say we become what we see. Hence it is very essential to monitor what kind of media are we consuming as it has a significant impact on our personality and behaviour. In my conflexion for the month of February I had talked about how the sitcom – The Big Bang Theory had become kind of a coping mechanism for me in the past year. Allow me to be a little vulnerable and tell you some life lessons I took away from my beloved sitcom and how they have helped me in my entrepreneurial journey. 

• Sometimes changing paths is important 

It was indeed a shocker in the show when Penny decided to say goodbye to her acting career to take up a job in pharmaceutical sales. It was like going in two opposite ends. However, that leap of faith actually brought about positive and significant change in her life. 

Last year I did a similar thing when I took the decision to change my path from filmmaking to entrepreneurship and psychology.  It was a completely new stream and a new world and I was just starting out. But after a detailed discussion with my parents and my mentor Adi, I felt it was the right way forward. And you just gotta keep putting in the effort and make the most out of all opportunities you grab. 

• Sometimes you need to see a problem from a different angle

You might be living the life of your dreams when suddenly professor Gregorapolipopovich will come along and disprove your theory. Similar to what happened when Sheldon and Amy got their theory disproved, I faced what seemed like an unsolvable problem when it came to my project Sunday Game Nights. We knew we had a brilliant idea and a novel product but it was a complete challenge when it came to selling the product. We had many marketing ideas but none seemed to work with our initial target audience- students our age. From one vantage point, it seemed like the project was over. 

 

But just like super-asymmetry, entrepreneurship is also observer relative. It all depends on who the user is.  That is when we decided to change gears and completely switched our target market from students to actually families living in different parts of the world. And that was an instant hit. The project picked up pace after months of stagnancy. So if you are stuck in a place, try turning the world upside down. A little super-asymmetry will change your entire idea. 

 

• Always be open to learning new things

Unicycle, juggling, Finnish, Mandarin, Tuvan throat singing, Piano, Theremin I could go on and on and on but the list of Sheldon Cooper’s skill set will not come to an end in a single blog. What resonates the most with me is the fact that he never sits idle. He tries to learn a new skill every chance he gets. Being an entrepreneur is similar. The learning never stops. 

You have to have a number of skills in your quiver of talents and abilities and you need to keep working on them, polishing them, and experimenting with them. Over the course of my fellowship, I have learned many skills and grown abilities which have helped me in my entrepreneurial journey. From building my own website to cold calling, making social media strategies to designing ebooks, hosting kids to graphic designing, I am like a one-man army. And there are miles to go before I sleep. Many skills, many abilities, and many lessons. 

• Keep the child inside you alive

One cannot not talk about comic books and superheroes when talking about The Big Bang Theory. A large part of the premise is built around the fact that despite their advanced degrees and achievements the four male leads of the show love comic books. And their dedication to the world of science fiction is commendable.

 While working on #Karo Playdates, which was my Kickstart project, I came to a realization that often as adults we think of the big stuff. We think we will solve the problems of the adults and that is the way to go. But the reality is true entrepreneurship lies in the bachcha stuff(quoting Nipun Girotra, one of our Green Room speakers). While designing #Karo playdates I had to go back to being a child and to think like a child. And that experience was eye-opening. The sheer joy of bringing smiles to the faces of 7- 12-year-old kids was filled with satisfaction. We implied the same principle when we expanded Sunday Game Nights to host birthday parties for kids. What was key here was to keep the child inside us alive and stop looking at everything with skepticism. 

 

The show is filled with many such Bazzinga’s and mind-boggling moments. But what I have come to realize after rewatching the seasons more than 7 times, is that every problem has a solution. There is no problem that is unsolvable, no product that is unsellable, and no skill that is uncoachable. And it all starts with a big bang.