Consequences of Negativity in Entrepreneurship

What is negativity?

Negativity is the rumours or news about something bad happening, has happened and/or will happen.
Negativity rooted in the politics of the country is highly prevalent in Nepal. However, negativity comes from everywhere, from social events that go wrong to the celebrity scandal, to the statement of the Indian officials as well as commoners and so on. There is no limit for negativity. People living within Nepal and abroad, all gossip about the bads and wrongs. The media loves negativity.

Why everyone likes to hear the negative news, rumours and gossips?

I do not have an answer to this question. All I know is, there is human drive that appeals more to intense emotions such as fear, pain, and worry rather than happiness and joy. This is perhaps why negativity takes hold of media and public!

Consequences

My focus on this article are the consequences of negativity in entrepreneurship. Negative vibes such as the market is not growing, the politicians are corrupt and you need to bribe them to run your business, the customers are not rational and they buy shit, and so on crushes your hope and energy for starting a business. Although, these are often less true, less intense, and there are several people who have overcome these challenges to drive success in their businesses, majority of people fall for these negative hearsay. This is harmful.

The immediate effect of negative rumours is directly reflected on stock market. For instance, if something bad happens, such as there is unfavourable government policy, or change in government or so on, the market dips, almost instantaneously. Likewise, if there is a good news, such as issue of dividends, appointment of a charismatic CEO, favourable government policy, etc, then the market surges in the similar fashion.

Comparative example of India and Nepal

These effects equally hold true in the long term and across the whole economy. Unfortunately, however, such effects are much less visible which is why the media as well as the public are not sensitive about such news and rumours. However, let's take an example of India. The positive vibes about the country achieving high rate of economic growth, and moving toward progress are all over the world. This brings in trust and hope of the prospective entrepreneurs to try and take risk. This initiative further fuels the economic growth and ultimately the country happens to prosper at a quicker rate.

However, if we observe closely, there are a lot of problems within India. There are skyscrapers and slums together. There are places that are heavily polluted, dirty and disgusting. There are police and politicians who are equally corrupt. However, because the positive vibes are strong, the people are hopeful and the country is doing better day by day. One day this will become a reality!

We Nepalese focused more on Negativity

If we talk about our country Nepal, the case is just opposite. The people are always unsatisfied and are relentlessly cursing the politicians. While some positive developments occur the people build up a conspiracy theory around it. For example, when some ministers perform good job in their department, they are not praised enough but are looked upon with scepticism and doubt. Gagan Thapa did a good job during the short period of time while he was a health minister. Likewise, Janardan Sharma did a good job as an energy minister. However, there are many people (often with a different political affiliation) who criticise them.

Likewise, there is recently a new political party coming up in Nepal that seems to have truly understood the problem of Nepal. Bibeksheel Sajha Party, which is newly formed, is focusing on developing the nation, and it is possible if we support this party. Until now, we had parties, which did not bring any agendas of transparency, and economic development and this party is coming up with such agendas. These are relevant and if we support them their agendas can become a reality. However, there are more critics than supporters. This will be harmful to the country.

Let's change our attitude as well as habits

To wrap up, we need to change our attitude from negative to positive. We need to be more hopeful. We need to believe that positive things can happen in our country. We need to believe that entrepreneurship is worth pursuing in the context of Nepal. Apart from that we need to act from wherever we are. We do not need to be a politician to clean up the mess outside our own house. We do not need to be an civil engineer to fill up the ditches in the road just in front of our houses. We do not need to be "specialist" to perform simple fixes around our neighbourhood. We need to make a habit of fixing things on our own. We need to emphasise on actions that can change our life. Doing this  Only then we can succeed in developing our country. And this applies equally to our entrepreneurial endeavour.