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Tag: entrepreneurs

Do what you love: Why you are not your job

Written by Jerome on . Posted in Start-up.

Even as someone who works for myself and makes a living off of creativity, it’s not always fun. I’m not like those photos you see from Google image searches of people who work from home, stretching out while letting the rays of sunshine wash over my face.

Most days, I bust my ass designing websites that require lots of rounds of revisions with clients, and we may not see eye-to-eye. Or publication editors ask for revisions I don’t always agree with.

I butt heads with people that pay me, and some days I wouldn’t work if I didn’t have to. I sometimes miss out on doing things I want to do because I have to work. And I have it so easy (because I work for myself doing something I mostly enjoy) that I don’t even have the right to complain.

While I love doing what I do, it’s still work. I still get up at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. everyday and sit down and work for most of the day. I don’t wait to be inspired because it’s a job. And I stop when the work is finished.

I’m lucky to have this life, which is afforded to me because I live in the first-world and grew up middle class. I don’t have to stress about how I’ll pay rent, afford health-care or wonder when we’ll be able to buy groceries next. I completely see the hypocrisy and classist edification of me even talking about this subject.

But if everyone’s job was simply to “do what they love,” who would collect garbage, work as a cashier, do data-entry or any other job that doesn’t seem as soul fulfilling? Those aren’t even lesser jobs either, they’re just jobs.

The reality of jobs

Doing what you love for a job is awesome, but not mandatory or valued above anything else.

I’ve never understood why so many people are so concerned with only doing a job that makes them happy – as if anything else wasn’t worth doing.

Find a job that you don’t have to worry about when you’re not doing it – or a job that doesn’t make you miserable every single day. You’ll still be far better off than a lot of folks.

As I enjoy telling my wife, work is called “work” and not “super happy fun time” because often it’s just tasks that need to be done. It doesn’t mean your life is less meaningful just because your job lacks existential value.

You aren’t your job. It doesn’t have to define you unless you let it. Plus, you can always do what you love in your spare time.

“Doing what you love” doesn’t have to mean a job. It can be a hobby, a passion or even simply spending time with the people you that you love the most. If you like something enough, you’ll find time to make it happen.

Get epic business growth by instilling these data gathering habits

Written by Jerome on . Posted in Enterprise.

A business whose true north is growth will know that collecting quantitative and qualitative data is critical. Organizing your company’s data and knowledge from the beginning is not optional. Without this system, you might struggle to understand why your visitors and users are doing what they do, how they value your product and how they pass on information about it to others.

This means setting up your technical information (such as updates, tests, feature developments) and “business” information (such as design changes, copy updates, blog posts) in a way that the team has a holistic overview of the state of affairs.

The aim is to improve your team’s ability to identify correlation and causation – was there a surge in visits after the new feature was uploaded, or was it because of the new SEO’d blog post published the same day?

A guide to creating your startup advisory board

Written by Jerome on . Posted in Start-up.

The entrepreneurial journey is full of twists, turns, ups and downs. That’s why you need the support of trusted advisors.  Take these examples:

1. The Accidental Founder

Renee is in early stage mode. She has an “accidental business” – something that she happened upon as a result of her interest in helping people. To her surprise and delight, what started as a hobby, helping people decorate their homes, has garnered a great deal of attention in the neighborhood.

Little by little, friends turned to clients, clients began referring other clients and she started making money doing what she loves.  Now she wants to turn it into a full time gig – she’s even thinking of hiring an assistant. But, she’s not sure where to begin.  She needs advice.

2. The Guy Who Cried ‘Scale’

Barry’s business is in a time of transition (who’s isn’t, right?). He has built it up from little more than an idea two years ago to the high class challenge now of being caught between plenty of work and too much work. He has a lot of questions and concerns and sleepless nights.

His team is great – they are dedicated and trusting and committed to the success of the business, but they are not owners. The challenges he faces are uniquely his and, frankly, the decisions he makes about the business may impact the team in ways they might not choose on their own. He needs advice.

3. The Risk-Taker

Another friend, Alexander, has been with his company for nearly 30 years. He is running a small division of a much larger firm. The group operates with a great deal of autonomy and Alexander has comfort knowing he is backed by a stable organization.

But, things have changed. The big company has moved out of the sector that Alexander’s group covers.

So, last month, Alexander offered to buy the business from his employer. He is at once elated, freaked out, cautious, risk-loving and ready to take the next step. He needs advice.

In all three scenarios, the entrepreneurs were contemplating and/or experiencing seismic shifts in their careers and in their businesses. While the companies in question and the decisions made to impact the firms’ futures rest solely with the entrepreneurs themselves, those decisions could likely be made more clearly with the input of trusted third parties.

This may also be true for you.

Why entrepreneurs are obsessed with failures

Written by Jerome on . Posted in Enterprise.

Aashish Gupta (or The Fundamentalyst) is an investment banking research associate covering European Tech sector. He loves to experiment with startup ideas and write about technology, life, society and spirituality

The beginning of an end

Let alone starting a business, if you have lived/taken a risk even for a single day in your life, you have gone through this. The repeated cycle of idea to execution to failure is the first and the most frustrating part in any entrepreneurial journey.

 “Great success is built on failure, frustration, even catastrophe” – Sumner Redstone

The above quote reinforces our idea that this stage forms the foundation of something bigger. The list of obstacles adding to the frustration is endless. Failure to hold on to a co-founder, ineffective product, cash burn, operational difficulties, legal hassles, emotional and physical burnout, loneliness, self-pity, almost anything and everything will bring you down.

Any sane person at this point of time will break, and so will you – the best of you. Abraham Lincoln, after failing as a captain, businessman, lawyer, and several times as a politician, wrote in a letter to his friend: “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.”

There are other stories such as those of Harland David Sanders, the famous KFC “Colonel,” who couldn’t sell his chicken, and was rejected by more than 1000 restaurants. Stephen King, after getting rejected by 30 publishers was so frustrated with his first novel, Carrie, that he threw it in the trash.

While these are known ones, there may be other countless untold stories which never came into limelight.

 “If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.” – Steven Wright, American comedian, actor and writer

Maybe a lot of entrepreneurs follow Steven’s advice and never let out their breakdown episodes because they want to keep their “metal head, ready to take any blow” image intact.

These snippets from lives of some of the most successful people tell us that failure is inevitable, and so is breakdown in some or the other form. If you are in the same phase, do not yet think that startup is not your game.

Smooth seas do not make good sailors

Have you by any chance skipped the above process? Has your life been a ride on a highway so far? Then be aware that you are still at the bottom of the learning curve. Know that if you hit a plateau you will not know how to climb over.

Bobby Jones, an American amateur golfer, once said that he never learned a thing from the tournament he won. Whether it’s lady luck on your side or an extremely high IQ that got you whatever you wanted in the very first or even second attempt, do not let yourself fall into the “I am successful because I did everything right” trap.