How Online Banking Prepares You To Become An Entrepreneur

As startup mentors will tell you, a successful entrepreneur needs to:

1. Take risks
2. Move fast but be patient
3. Thrive on ambiguity

Online banking is a great way to develop these skills. Here's why:

#1. Take risks

Online banking portals mince no words when they tell you that you're on your own while making an electronic fund transfer. Their warnings include:

• Credit will be effected based solely on the beneficiary account number information; beneficiary name particulars will be ignored.
• Ensure that the beneficiary account number you enter is correct. We will not validate it.
• We are not responsible for funds transferred to an unintended recipient.

If you still proceed, you're already a pro risk taker.

#2. Move fast but be patient

You want to make a payment quickly. You don't want to wait for the 1-2 days it takes for a cheque to clear and head over to your bank's online banking portal instead. Assuming that you've mastered #3, you'll be able to add a new beneficiary within a few minutes. (If you've not mastered #3, cheque would be faster). You'd then be told to wait for "cooling period" to get over before initiating a payment. Depending on the bank, this wait time could be as long as 24 hours. If you've thought "make haste slowly" was an oxymoron, this experience will not only change your mind but make you an ace at this skill.

#3. Thrive on ambiguity

Online Banking presents a rich treasure trove of ambiguity e.g.

• Should you enter the leading zeros in the account number or skip them while setting up a new payee?
• How many number 0s or letter Os or both does the payee bank's IFSC code have (for the uninitiated, IFSC code is the Indian equivalent of Bank Sort Code)?
• Which is the right IDBI BANK out of the four banks masquerading by that name (or the right HDFC BANK out of the three...)?

After all this, if you've successfully set up a payee account, you've crushed ambiguity.

*****

I don't claim to be a great entrepreneur but, for the few entrepreneurial skills I do have, I've only my online banking to thank.