Why I Want to Join a Tech Startup
Before diving into my Why, you need to know where I come from.
This is not my life story, but a short recap of the past two years, with some highlights worth mentioning.
It’s about 1000-word long, so if you don’t want to read about my background and go straight to the meat instead, scroll down to 2020: Self-revelation.
You’re destined to do great things, Basile.
It was in April 2014. I don’t remember the exact day, but I do remember my life at the time was really sad.
I didn’t have any friends. My marks in high school were very low. Teachers and peers were making fun of me, all the time.
I never really understood why the latter happened, until I realized how flawed was the traditional educational system.
One of the teachers that did his best to have some fun was the Physics teacher.
In the next two years, he’d have done anything to praise my results, but I didn’t know that at the time.
He didn’t have any reason to laud my bad marks.
However, one day he got into the classroom, took a sit, cleaned his glasses, and said:
“Basile, You’re destined to do great things.” Tweet
I didn’t know whether to laugh or to feel pleased, but no much time passed before one of my female peers said:
“Then we are in good hands!”
The strangest thing was the teacher’s response: he behaved as if she was saying something really stupid.
Eventually, that single sentence helped me overcome many hardships, even without me being aware of that.
It’s the same fuel that propelled me throughout the last two years of my life, where I did everything, but nothing.
2018–2019: Self-Mirror
“Everything in your life, every experience, every relationship is a mirror of the mental pattern that is going on inside of you.” — Louise Hay Tweet
I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur when I left University, and I still want, but the purpose is now different.
At first, I was ecstatic about the financial freedom that marketing may have given me, and that’s why I tried to build a marketing blog in February 2018, without success.
I learned a ton from it: how to manage my time, how to be self-disciplined, and how to learn new skills on my own, like writing and SEO.
Without any money left (working part-time as a teacher was my only income at the time), I decided to partner with a friend of mine to promote ClickBank Products on Facebook in September.
After three months, I said enough: this guy was asking me whether he should talk in English or not to Facebook support. I didn’t want to work with such clowns.
Trying to coming up with something new in January 2019 was tough, and my growing beard was the sign of a slow depression.
On January 31st, my mum advised me to call back again the cooperative agency I had been working with.
Cooperatives here in Italy are a sort of legalized slavery.
You work a lot, they make a lot of money on you and they pay you very low.
When in March 2018 I joined them, they decided how much I should work, and despite I had accountant fuel, and taxes on my shoulders, the hourly rate was around $12–13/hour.
Not a good deal.
I did that call, and demand was high for Math and Physics, so I joined back again. I had nothing to lose.
At the beginning of the year, I promised I’d have not wasted my time again in business if I’d not be working directly with people.
I didn’t like being an affiliate, an E-commerce owner, or a blogger. I wanted to work with real people. I wanted to work in consulting.
To do that, I needed to get started in the field buying the Sam Oven’s Consulting Accelerator course.
Between February and Mid May I had been working a lot, and slowly increased my work hours.
As an instructional coach, I could work with students starting around 2 pm.
Working 4–6h was not enough, so I did my best to convince a few students to work with me in the evening.
It worked: In February I worked 110h, in March I worked 210h, In April around 170h.
I paid my debts and bought the course. I was still too dumb to understand that a great course is not enough to build a business.
In April I chose the niche, and in May I started doing outreach to learn more about tech startups.
Which were their pains? Their needs? Their desires?
In the meantime, my social life was at ground zero.
It didn’t matter to me, as I knew I could get all the friends I wanted, but hopefully growth-minded like me, and that was not the case nearby.
That’s why between February and May I just stick to the same routine every day:
Wake up at 6 am.
Meditation and Yoga moves for an hour. No breakfast — Intermittent Fasting. Reading in the morning.
Have lunch.
Get ready to work. Work till 9–10–11 pm. Meditation.
Repeat.
Therefore, I went on holiday with an old friend of mine in Spain.
It didn’t go well. We cut things one week before the holiday, and it was awful being on holiday with someone you’ve just broken up with.
To rebuild my holidays, I went to Russia to join a dating coach, but I didn’t get the results I wanted.
At the time I didn’t know I was a victim of my self-sabotaging behaviors and that a dating coach was not needed.
When I came back from Russia I had very little money, and I felt lost.
I did get even a fine for my insurance. The firm did not notify us the payment of January did not go through. It was in July.
From there, I’ve been working up to 12h/day non-stop on the Agency and looking back at the conversations, I realize I was scared as fuck to talk with CEOs, CMOs, and so on.
I was supposed to be working with them. I was not.
In November I decided to take a break as I hadn’t made any profit yet.
Again, I was self-sabotaging myself: Not only I was not doing outreach, but I tried to avoid it at all, creating content probably for the pleasure of doing it, instead.
Lost, with no money and my parents’ pressure (somehow justified), I had to find a solution.
I tried to promote myself on Instagram to prospective students. It didn’t work. Posts were too long and I wasn’t tuned in with the platform.
I tried to build partnerships with local businesses bringing two articles I wrote: one for parents, one for students.
Most of the time they thrashed the article. I did understand when I came back the next time.
Nonetheless, I was determined to land a few clients.
I was not experienced working with startups. I was with the students.
2020: Self-revelation
“I am fascinated by self-sabotage. I think that there’s not a person I know who doesn’t fall victim to it. It’s essential to the human condition, and relatable.” — Kit Williamson Tweet
In January, after reading “Taming your Outer Child” by Susan Anderson, every little piece started fitting in. Everything made sense. I was self-sabotaging myself.
I felt relieved yet worried.
I wanted to get rid of this, and fast. I needed a coach to be working with.
In the meantime, I was able to land my first clients. I posted the same article on a few local FB groups and it worked.
I created the sale script and managed to work at a “premium price”, around $22/h. That’s good in Italy.
Fast Forward to April, I managed to build a basic wardrobe, work with an RTT coach to remove these damn limiting beliefs, and investing in a business coach.
Finally releasing my internal blockages was wonderful. I feel like living in a dream, and reality is a dream for several reasons.
Funnily enough, I got my opportunity to reborn from the ashes right at the start of the COVID pandemic.
From April till June, I had been working again on my Agency. I was curious whether the problem was self-sabotaging or not.
It didn’t work, but for a key reason: In the past, I attached the money-making possibility of the Agency to the goals In the other areas of my life, such as fitness or dating.
Eventually, I reached my goals in both without any extra money or coaching.
It’s like learning everything about yourself the second time.
The first one I was blind about my real abilities though.
That broke up the link and I quit the business.
I’m not leaving, but I don’t like building in business just for the sake of making money.
I’ll probably build a business(es) again in the future, but not at the moment for sure.
Now I want a mission to work insanely towards and challenges to face.
Like-minded people I can learn from and build relationships with.
People that wake up every morning thinking “what’s next?”, in every area of their life.
Mentors that I can learn from, like a sponge.
A great environment where I can thrive.
On top of that, the opportunity to grow, and fast.
Neither I know how fast I can go, but I’m determined to find and overcome my limits.
The tech startup environment is a perfect synthesis of all these things, and that’s why I want to join.
Three words matter to me: Impact, Growth, Freedom.
In that order.
If you feel in tune with the last three words, get in touch.
We have a lot to talk about.
For now, enjoy your day.
Marco
