More than just me
Don’t think too complicated…
For two weeks, Lifeventure’s Facebook page is empty. My mind is too.
What’s next?
I had a few experiences organizing events at different scales, but never had I started an event from scratch. I was scared. I don’t know what to do.
It’s mid summer, and most of my friends had internships or projects they were working on. So whenever I was chatting with my friends, the same questions came up:
What are you doing this summer?
My answer?
I am trying to start a event in Hong Kong. People do 300 tasks in 24 hours and they compete in teams to see which team can complete the most tasks. It’s called Lifeventure.
First of all, terrible elevator pitch. Usually my friends just replied with a “that’s cool” and moved on. Some friends would ask more, but never went beyond “why do this when you have an 9-to-5 internship?”
Wooo. That’s unexpected! I was not prepared to have another person interested in doing this, let alone helping me expand to Seoul. Having bad experiences working with people before, I was very hesitant in bring in other people. So I told my friend:
I wanna try it small scale and then figure this out from there…
Why was I so hesitant on bringing in another person?
Looking back…
For the past few years, I have worked on numerous projects. Those experiences taught me a few things about how I work:
- My standard for work is really high. A lot of people’s work seems below my standards, so I often have to redo their work, making it unfair for their contribution and my time
- I am very opinionated. I love to put my idea forward and seldom step back and take in other people’s ideas
- Once my friends turn into my co-workers, I have a different way to dealing with them. For example, our conversations will become more official and deliberate
- I often can’t stick with one idea for a long time. Therefore none of my ideas before go beyond incubation
Because of these, I don’t want to involve my friends into this venture until I am sure that I will stick with this idea, our ideas align, and I am satisfied with our work.
But my friend’s enthusiasm trumped my concern. I agreed to hop onto a Skype call to talk about it. But I told her:
I am still not sure about this thing…
The Skype Call
The Skype call went great. I told her about the whole idea, what I thought about bringing it to Hong Kong and Seoul, the current challenges, my concerns about bringing in another person, my working style… She told me why she wanted to do this, what she thought this could become…
Towards the end of the Skype call, I reiterated my biggest concern:
I don’t want to bring in another person before I am sure about this
She understood. But she offered to ask around her friend network to see whether people would be interested in a 24 hour adventure race in Seoul. I agreed, not expecting too much to come out of it because I wasn’t ready for Hong Kong, let alone Seoul.
Who else are you working with?
Seoul’s market research turned out to be average. Everyone sounded like they were interested, but no one actually said they would join (later I figured out that this is a bad signal…). She told me through Skype, and I resonated with my own market research. Normally, I would just say that we shouldn’t pursue it. But then she said…
Did I think too complicatedly? While it is good to make sure that the project is in good shape before bringing in anyone, what is the worst scenario? Failing and becoming friends again. Besides, my internship this summer taught me working alone is so difficult. Having just one more person brings in so much more new thinking and energy to push things forward.
And I need that for Lifeventure!
So, with her enthusiasm and these two revelations, I decided to make Lifeventure OUR project. To commemorate this special occasion, we opened a team drive on Google.
Lessons Learned
- Reflect back on your past experiences: they are the best indicators for future performances. Be honest with self reflections. Don’t shy away from negatives because they are not transient, they can be changed
- Be transparent with your teammates: when I studied business, I remembered one of the first lessons is 5 dysfunctions of team, and the most common dysfunction is lack of trust. Trust is first built on transparency. Being honest and clear about your working style is a good way to build trust and create a consensus among the team, however small the team is.
- Don’t overcomplicate things: while it’s good to be thoughtful about things, initiating projects sometimes requires that blind conviction (or 盲勁 in Chinese). There is a quote in one of the Silicon Valley’s episode:
Every founder can reflect back to a moment when all the rationalities are off the table, and they made purely irrational decisions that seemed foolish at first, but the one decision needed to succeed
Not that I made the most profound decision to brig another person in, but I want to illustrate that sometimes gut feeling and irrationality are what’s needed in the face of uncertainty
- Two is better than one: starting a project with one person sounds easier. But as challenges grow, it is very hard to push through with just you. Having another partner makes all the difference.
- Early pioneers are more important than the founder: often times, the founder gets the most attention. However, without the early pioneers who supported before everyone noticed, most ventures would not become reality. It is because of my friend, the first pioneer, who supported and pushed me at a time when I couldn’t even push myself, that propelled me to take the first step. Although there is still a long way to go, taking the first step is monumental
This is episode 2 of an ongoing series about me starting my first legit venture, a lifestyle company. We are hosting our first curated experience, a city-wide night game of tag called Last One Standing in Hong Kong. Support us by signing up here. Hope I can see you there!
For people who are not in Hong Kong, stayed tuned to this series to find out what it takes to host our first curated experience.
