Chander Baljee, founder and CMD of Royal Orchid Hotels

Addressing students at Fusion, he said that managing the environment is a greater task in front of entrepreneurs. "It is great to work with figures in Excel sheets. However, the ground realities are hard. You have to learn to work despite of regulations, red tape, government and other external factors," he said.

Baljee was speaking from experience. Baljee started Royal Orchid Hotel in the midst of a trade union movement in 1973. Back in the 1970s, Bangalore wasn't an overcrowded city hungry for hotel rooms - it was a town of four public sector undertakings and retired personnel. The journey started with Baljee taking over Hotel Harsha on lease. "It has been a long, hard journey. I had to learn to work around the external factors to survive," he said.

"It is tough to be an entrepreneur. If you want an easy life, take up a job," Baljee added.

In fact, he recommended students to gather work ex before venturing out on their own. "I was offered lots of job offers but I didn't take them up. What kept me going was the fact that I enjoyed what I was doing. However, I sometimes wonder that if I had worked in the Oberoi Group for a while, I would have perhaps learnt to do things differently," Baljee said.