Five Things I Learned From Starting My Own Company

When I was a child, about six or seven, I wanted to skateboard. I thought it was the coolest method of transportation and nothing was going to get in the way of me learning how to do it. I stepped on the skateboard and within a few minutes flew back and hit the ground hard. I remember looking at my skateboard in disgust, feeling ashamed for being so naive to think that I could do it. But the desire to want to skateboard was stronger than the emotional and physical pain of falling. I practiced almost every day and I wore my wounds as if they were medals, a testament to my accomplishment because with each day I noticed myself getting a little bit better. To be fair, starting your own business is far more complex than learning how to skateboard but if a child can recognize that not trying is worse than trying and failing, then you can easily adhere to the same life lesson. Two years ago I started my own company and that was the first lesson I learned. I have since then learned many others, here’s a quick summary of the important ones…
1. If you worry, you’ll hurt twice.
When I sat down and made the decision to start my company, my one thought was “what do I have to lose?” I am young, so if I spend a year building this and it fails, it wouldn’t set me back, if anything it will leapfrog my career. If it fails I will have lost $30k, but I will be richer in experience. Worth the money? Maybe not, but people have spent more on worse things, I will bounce back. So I made the call and went all in and have only had few regrets along the way. You are the only one keeping you from your dreams. There will never be the perfect time to start and the stars will never align to accommodate your dreams. You might fail if you try but you will definitely fail if you don’t — those are pretty good odds. Behind every success story are failures and first renditions that every entrepreneur learns from, don’t let the possibility of failure keep you from your success.
2. Just start working.
I always hear the same thing when I tell people that I have my own company — “I have tons of ideas but I don’t think I could ever be an entrepreneur. I wouldn’t even know where to start”. Truthfully, I had no idea where to start either but I had to start somewhere…anywhere. I started with a very rough business plan, similar to what I learned to do in university. I am old school, so a lot of my ideas were written down on paper — it helped me visualize. My first step was to establish how I’d make money and how much I could feasibly expect to make (worst case scenario). My next biggest topic to address was target market, mainly the ‘who’ and the ‘how’. Who will buy what I am selling and how will I tell them about it? Online presence is key. You might as well not be in business if you can’t be found online. While I was planning everything else, I was building my online presence. After that, everything was decided as it came up. The biggest thing I learned was not to spend too much time trying to perfect one single thing. Your plan and direction will change (what feels like) a million times — get your idea out there and then focus on getting it right.
3. The only constant is change.
In the words of Heraclitus “We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not”. If I could with confidence give you one key takeaway from what I have learned it is that you definitely will not step into the same river twice. Just as a river is constantly in flux, your ideas and direction will continuously change. Sometimes those changes will be within your control and other times they will be dictated by external forces that you couldn’t possibly anticipate. Overall, changes at least in direction can be good. Thinking back to some of the initial ideas I had, I am happy that I changed the direction with a lot of things. I changed the pricing model after the first weekend I launched. Comparing it to the new pricing model, I lost about $2,000 in profits that first weekend. And because I wasn’t afraid of change and realized an opportunity so early on it didn’t affect much else. If you are someone who isn’t comfortable with change, get ready to challenge yourself. One thing is certain, all the changes keep things exciting!
4. It comes with extreme highs and lows.
As the founder of a business, the connection you feel to its successes and failures is far more profound than any success or failure you have felt as an employee at an organization. Milestones aren’t just your career milestones they are your life milestones — First logo, first bank account, first customer, first fiscal year. I lived the roller coaster of the early days, enjoying every win but I also hurt with every blow. During the first year, I had many 18 hour days where sleep deprivation already put me into a manic state, that coupled with the intense stress was a cocktail for some interesting emotions. You learn a lot about yourself, about your patience and resilience, and afterwards no amount of stress will ever compare. Take note of the highs, remember them and reference them during the lows, those moments will be your motivation to get you to the next milestone.
5. Be patient.
We have all heard the phrase “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, I feel very uncreative for saying it but it is so relevant for any entrepreneur. Tons of ideas are abandoned before they even have a chance to show their promise. When you start something, go all in and see it through. It’s important not only to be patient with assessing the success of your company but also be patient with yourself and others around you. Patience is a virtue that will if harnessed, go a long way in maintaining your sanity and keeping your stress levels down. After a few curveballs and freak-out moments, I quickly learned that in order for me to have a healthy balance of emotions I needed to approach problems with an almost unemotional outlook. Not worrying about how a problem affects you in the moment, but rather looking at what needs to be done to combat it going forward. Above all, business is a test to your commitment and perseverance. You will quickly learn how good you are at suffering and in my opinion that is a great quality to have.
My biggest takeaway:
Conceiving a business, building the foundation, launching it and growing that business from the ground up lets you see every angle of a company and the phases of its development as if on fast-forward. And as a result, you are forced to play multiple roles and take on responsibilities that may have taken you years to reach by going down a more conventional career path. I learned more in one year of entrepreneurship than during the four years of university. My education certainly helped but no amount of case studies could have ever adequately prepared me for all the challenges and curveballs I faced. I vehemently encourage everyone who has a business idea, big or small to pursue it. It will change your life; it certainly changed mine.
