Forays into Entrepreneurship
Advice for those contemplating taking the plunge (or, perhaps, dipping a toe).
I want to talk with you about making the change from consumer to producer. From observer to creator. From appreciator to innovator. But before I do that,I have to tell you who I am.
I am a consumer, an observer, an appreciator of ingenuity, and a respecter of great entrepreneurs. I am excited by advancing technology and authentic design, and how in tandem, these forces can change and shape our lives for the better — but what really stops me in my tracks is seeing a solution so simple it boggles the mind.
Such as the imaginative solution S-Oil, a South Korean oil company, dreamed up to reduce time and petrol wasted in the regular quest to find a car park.
The company designed a simple system to allow free parking spots to be found from afar. They affixed large, yellow helium balloons to each parking spot, at a height visible from throughout the car park. When a car parked in a spot, it pushed on the string holding the balloon, lowering it to below the car’s height. Upon entering the car park, drivers would be able to see, at a glance, where the free spots were, by following the yellow balloons (there’s a video showing it in action here).
Practical issues aside (the helium required regular replenishing, for instance), the sheer simplicity of this solution is impressive. It’s this level of ingenuity that really inspires me.
So I knew the kind of work I wanted to undertake, who I wanted to be — but how was I to get started? The entrepreneurs I was reading about seemed so far away from where I was in life. How would I become one of these people, instead of just reading about them? What did they have that I did not? What had that they done, that I hadn't?
Here are the four key actions that took me from the sidelines into the action:
- Read — Read anything, and everything. Read every resource, tip, and quip. Read about what entrepreneurs do, how they do it, and what they do when they’re not working. Get inspired. Soak in every possible morsel. And if you can store and categorise this information so that it’s accessible in the future (I use Evernote fiendishly), even better.
- Network — This one probably goes without saying, but is so drastically crucial it cannot be taken for granted. Contact and spend time with as many varied, influential, and interesting people as you can find. Figure out how their minds function, what their work looks like, what their ideals are — and share your own story with them, too. The most serendipitous of opportunities come out of such relationships.
- Pretend— If you want to be a certain kind of person, the best way to get there is to pretend you’re already that person. Imagine yourself as an entrepreneur — what does that look like? How do you talk? What do you do? Where do you do it? Even if you feel like you’re faking it, start doing it. No one will know the difference anyway.
- Act — So, you’re afraid? Yep, we all are. Of failure. Of rejection. Of humiliation. Do it anyway. Take the first step, have the first conversation. Allow yourself the room to experiment and try things out. If your only idea has already been done, or is impractical, work on it anyway. The act of forcing your mind to work in that way will have a greater impact than you think.
The pivotal point for me came around the point I read this piece by Andrew Torba, which contained the following quote:
“Entrepreneur is just French for ‘has ideas, does them’” — @alexisohanian
We so often associate the word entrepreneur with high profile twitter accounts, billion dollar purchase offers, and cutting edge technology — but entrepreneurship can be anything you want it to be.
So what have I achieved by doing the above? Not much, by some standards. I haven’t launched anything, and I haven’t written a single line of code. But I’ve had ideas, and I’m doing them. I haven’t struck upon the next mind-bogglingly simple innovation, but I’m designing a product I believe in and is marketable, something that was unthinkable until only recently.
And you know what else I’ve done? I’ve written this article.
