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Recently, I traveled to a dense wildlife sanctuary in central India to have a look at resident and migratory birds. As a coincidence, I had a handful of wildlife photographers, including those from National Geographic, for company in the resort where I stayed. They were all specialized in wildlife photography. During my conversations with them, I was quite intrigued to discover that some of the disciplines and critical traits these photographers possess are so relevant for a budding entrepreneur.

The early bird advantage
As the name suggests, if exquisite birds are to be photographed in all their natural glory, these photographers have to be early birds themselves. I wonder if that’s where the genesis of this phrase is. Your best shot of catching the first sight of the freshest and widest variety of birds is if you reach the spot before others start crowding the place (and scaring the birds away) as early as possible in the morning.

Patience pays
Like a serious hunter in the deepest of the woods, this camera community needs to have loads of patience. Sometimes, they have to camp at the right spots or locations for days on end just to get the right stuff that they wish to capture in a way that no one has done before; that’s how they make it a unique experience for the eventual viewer.

Tough talk
To get the right angles, these photographers at times need to remain stationary in the same position for long periods of time, so that the animals do not get scared away and can be captured in their natural glory—be it a deadly fight between man-eaters or a pelican catching its prey in the lake.

Be determined
In order to get what you want, you need to keep going back to the same place with an attitude to dig deeper to eventually find water and construct a well at that spot, rather than digging small holes at multiple locations and landing up with a plethora of unusable ditches at various places.

Agility at all times
Wildlife does not and will not wait for you and your photography. When you spot an animal/bird that you want to shoot, you need to make quick decisions and act in split seconds to ‘shoot’ the moment at the right angle, with the right light and, more importantly, without noise. This requires agility of mind and body at the same time.

The right place at the right time
For photographers, the knack for being at the right place at the right time develops by repeatedly pursuing jobs of such nature. This builds their expertise in identifying the various ‘calls’ and ‘sounds’ of the wild, so that they are able to spot exactly where and when they would find the desired sightings.

In the entrepreneurial journey, this translates into becoming adept at picking up signals of where and how one can find the first customer or the right partner. There are usually numerous instances of ‘knocking on the wrong door’, which could be something as plain as approaching late-stage investors to fund your startup.

I actually witnessed such disciplines in practice while accompanying some of the wildlife photographers—and I felt it necessary to relay their traits to our budding entrepreneurs.

©Entrepreneur November 2010

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Bharat Banka