As the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (often referred to as one of the world’s largest foundations devoted to entrepreneurship) said in its letter to president-elect Obama, “Entrepreneurs invent, innovate, and advance living standards for society. They are the growth-drivers and job-creators of our economy.”

So entrepreneurs will be the key to bringing a turnaround, and to date, many successful entrepreneurs around the globe got to where they are through their strong desire to do something different, make a major impact or to create something new. And whether they are in North America, Europe, or Asia, the message always tends to be the same: they make many upfront sacrifices for deferred rewards, and often have no idea how successful they are going to be when starting out.Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys – India’s second largest software and services exporter which now employs over 91,000 employees in more than 40 offices and development centres in India, China, Australia, the Czech Republic, Poland, the UK, Canada and Japan – not only forms an excellent role model, but personifies and embodies all those noble qualities of a successful entrepreneur.

In an interview that I carried out for him on behalf of The Chilli, we covered various topics – from the start-up spirit and what it was like then in 1981, to what it is like now for start-ups and also his tips for other start-ups. We also talked about what he would do differently if he were to start again, and also his mentoring and philanthropic values.

The start-up spirit – the obstacles and the perseverance

When asked about the mood during the start-up days, he talks about how in those days India was a closed country and where there was a tremendous ‘friction’ towards business.He contrasts the conditions then with those now – and in particular, how India was an unfriendly environment for start-ups looking to operate globally. While they encountered many difficulties, he said that entrepreneurship is all about a passion that drives you to overcome those hurdles. Mr. Murthy says, “We saw every bottleneck as an obstacle race, as a chance to show we were smart and perseverant and we were optimistic.”

One of the key things that came out from the discussion with him about starting up is that he wanted to prove that entrepreneurship could find a place in India.

When I asked him about his tips for start-ups today, whether they are in Europe, the USA or India, he was very enthusiastic about the opportunities for entrepreneurs today.  “The issues today are not infrastructure, or bureaucracy. The issue today is the market, competition, and how smart you are.”

The full interview and audio podcast is available on The Chilli’s web site – click here.

The 10 questions below, which are part of a framework called The Chilli Value Test™, are a good start for you to be able to validate your business idea, to see if it will form the basis of a sustainable business.

Not only will these questions help flesh out your thought process, strengthening the idea, but it will also prepare a would-be entrepreneur for the creation of the business plan and the due diligence from potential investors.

The questions to ask are:

1. What problem are you solving?
2. What value are you adding?
3. Is the market big enough and growing?
4. How will you make money?
5. What are the barriers and paths to entry?
6. What is the competition?
7. Have you validated your idea?
8. How will you overcome customer inertia?
9. Risk analysis.
10. Key ingredients for a business plan.

For the full details of this test, click here.