I didn't Fail, I fell! But starting up right after my graduation was the best decision of my life.
Im 24 and I recently had to shut down my start up, because everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong! But this is a shout out to all those who are still in their early 20's and are aspiring to be entrepreneurs, i would say "Get out of the building and give it a shot!". It will teach you more than any book, teacher or parent can.
I didn't fail, I just fell and its completely fine. I don't call myself an entrepreneur yet, as I do not have a revenue generating business, but since more than a year now, I have been meeting people regarding work or otherwise and my answer to their question "what do you do?" has always been "I have a start up and I am trying to execute an idea!" Trust me, their look tells you, you're doing something bigger that yourself.
For all those who are reading, the purpose of this story is to explain you that how its totally worth going against all odds to work on something of your own, especially when you are in your early 20's. This post is only for those who have had the courage to think that they can, but are still in dilemma of whether to or not! The ones who are preparing for MBA, right after graduation, I would suggest click the back button and i hope you have another good vacation or don't blame me for changing your mind.
Ask yourself, what stops you from doing it?
Are you scared that you will fail? Or your parents, family, friends don't think you can do it? Is it lack of self awareness? Don't think your idea will work? Or may be all of these questions!
Let me tell you my story! I passed out of college in 2014 with entrepreneurship as my major and got placed at one of the big fours. Being probably the most desired job in college, I felt it was worth all the fun that i had. I took up the offer and as i was just a graduate, I knew nobody would pay me more than 20k- 25k anyway. I wanted to learn from the best in the business and that was my motivation. Even though i wanted to do a startup I thought it would be good to get into that vibe first(you start waking up at 7 a.m and get used to coming back at 9 p.m)and learnt the basics of how things work in a company. 6-7 months in the job and i realised it was not something that made me happy. I decided to talk to my manager and i explained him about how i wanted to start up (He is still one of my mentors). We had a good laugh and he told me to stop day dreaming and its not a piece of cake to start a company. He gave me a week to think. I pondered just like many of you are while reading this article. Trust me all greatness happens when you ponder. I was sure that i wanted to do it and I was trying to come up with some logical reasons to convince my manager to let me take the call. The next time i went to him, it was all serious and he was pissed because he thought i would change my mind and like any sane person continue learning where i was. He told me i would fail! But i still did go ahead with what i had decided to do.
My Parents, were skeptical and my friends thought I was getting into this world too early! But a funny thing about all these people, they all wanted me to stand out, by doing what everyone does. They all care for you and they would never want to see you go through any sort of grilling in life. But ask yourself if being comfortable has ever got anyone anywhere.
It will definitely make you rich!
Today if I look back and ask myself if they were right? Yes, they were absolutely right, that I would fail, and i did fail, but i am more rich than all of them today. Ill explain you how!
When you build something, there is a feedback loop which explains you that you build something and test it and take feedback to learn from it and build over again. And you keep building this until you achieve the product-market fit (Credits to lean start up by Eric Ries). I think this theory does not only apply to building a physical or software product, but also to an entrepreneurs journey. When you try building a business, you learn from your mistakes and collect feedback to do it right the next time you find yourself in a similar situation. When you go through this process again and again, you become better at it. You face a challenge everyday and you make mistakes more often than you ever did and you don't even realise how strong as an individual you end up being. Sometimes I still call up my manager(now he's more like an elder brother/mentor), to discuss human resource problems with him, I ask him about how he manages his team's expectations and keeps everyone happy. I am facing similar problems as him when i am at least 10 years younger. I don't think any MBA program would have taught me this. I feel more confident and I feel i have the capacity to do bigger things, things which not everyone can do. Isn't that feeling rich?
As Nike says, Just Do it!
For anything great to happen to you, you have to get out of the building and face the world. You have to work your ass off to see even the slightest of gains. And not once but everyday. So accept it the sooner you can and get to doing what you do the best. As its said, success comes when luck meets preparation! Give up on your fear and take things as they come. It won't kill you, will only make you stronger.
Let me know if this article did any good to you! email: [email protected]
And forgive me for any errors as i am still learning!
