An Intro to My Blog

Written in 2015/2016

First time entrepreneurship sucks.

It really does.

A dream dangles before your eyes and speaks to the fantasiser within.

The promises of glory and fame prey on the most idealistic suckers out there; the creatives that seek solace in individuality. Those exhausted of conformity and mediocrity and in search of a ‘revolutionary idea’ of their very own.

A half-assed attempt at constructing keyword strings on Google yield no competing results. You believe you have uncovered a gold mine.

You gather your smartest friends from college to let them in on your discovery.

“That’s so smart!” They exclaim.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” They ask.

But they’re just as clueless as you. They feed off of your excitement and you feed off theirs.

Now filled with symbiotic excitement, it’s time to take over the world.

You think if you get the following three things done, you’ll be golden:

1) Find a coder
2) Build the app
3) Market your app into oblivion

Simple.

You start brainstorming catchy names for your ‘company’ and put up a Facebook status in search of app coders. Next stop, Silicon Valley.

A few months pass and things begin to appear less clear cut than when you set out. Sure, you’ve got a few designs and ‘wireframes’ put together. You’ve read some industry market reports. You’ve even ‘fundraised’ by convincing some of your college friends to ‘get in early’ (as you magnanimously explain).

But things are still slow to move. And that’s when it hits you for the very first time.

This shit ain’t as straightforward as it seems.

But it’s too late. You’ve been exposed. Exposed to contentment that you’ve never experienced. Exposed to energy, to motivation that no other ‘work’ has ever produced within you. To self sufficiency, to optimism and to passion.

It’s dream like.

And the funny thing is, your journey hasn’t even begun.

I don’t know if Lil Wayne was an entrepreneur in a past life, but one of his raps perfectly encapsulates the startup struggle: “The top gets higher the more that I climb.”

The more I worked toward my startup dreams, the more I was awakened to the reality of their immense challenges; the steepness of the learning curve and the feeling that you were always trying to climb a wall.

But it was addictive and rewarding in a way that you simply can’t compare.

I created this blog to describe all that I have learned as a young startup founder. The painful lessons, insights and observations that have cumulatively shaped my career over the last 3 years.

It’s widely believed most first-time entrepreneurs fail due to inexperience and ignorance of what startups really entail. But if anyone were fully aware of the truth, why would any rational individual decide to take the plunge in the first place?

I wouldn’t.

I hope to share insights that I believe will benefit any first-time entrepreneur. Lessons that would have benefitted me before I started out as an idealistic dreamer entering the world of entrepreneurship.

But oh well, I’m hooked.

Related posts:

Within the scope of the project, article api was developed using ASP.NET Core Web API. Listing, searching, adding, updating and deleting articles via this api are done with REST calls. Adding…

What were you moving for? It’s wild to take a breath when air is what kills. Your disdain did not go unnoticed. Relief came right on time. The earth made the world stand still so you could stop your…

Going on vacation wasn’t always enjoyable for me. Many times in my first business, I would work the entire time and I had anxiety anytime I was away from the internet and wasn’t able to check my…