How to decide to startup
Everyone has good ideas, but what if one was actually great? What if you were seriously considering starting a business with that idea? What happens to the rest of your life? Do you “throw it all away” to chase the dream? Or is there a practical, systematic approach based on logical decision-making?
As you may have guessed, this post is about how I made the decision to found Abstract Assembly. It’s my hope that sharing my thought process for how I made the leap will give some insight for those of you who are struggling to decide.
Tip #1: Determine your values
The first thing to do is figure out what’s important to you in life. What are the things you want to reflect on? Are they accomplishments or experiences (there’s a big difference)? What would make you feel satisfied as you look back?
For me, life is all about self-improvement. If you remember from one of my older stories, River of Consistency, I follow the Philosophy of Water. One of its tenets is harmony and inner peace which I interpret as making continuous incremental improvements to myself through my work. Therefore I tend to value experience much more highly than accomplishments.
However, that’s not to say that being an achievement-driven individual is wrong for entrepreneurs. Perhaps one of your values is legacy and therefore what you leave behind is more important to you. That mindset is what got me through high school and what sustained me until the last year of college. To this day, I’m still exploring the reasons why I switched my ideology, but that’s not the point. The most important thing is to:
Decide for yourself what you value and whether or not starting up reflects those values.
Tip #2: Evaluate risks
Next, you’ll have to evaluate risks. Values are great, but it’s time to get practical.
Assuming you’ve already thought about the market risks related to your potential startup, you also have to think about what factors are influencing your personal life and how starting up may affect them.
Did you just graduate from college with some debt to take care of? Do you have enough money to sustain yourself while you work on your idea? And if you decide to work part-time, will you have enough time? Lastly, are there other things you want to do at this stage in your life aside from starting up that you’d be giving up?
In my situation, I was lucky enough to be on scholarship for my undergraduate degree so I had no debt. I was also lucky enough to land a part-time software development job with flexible hours. That’s how I’m paying for living expenses. It also has enough off-time during the week that allows me to make steady progress on product and business dev for Abstract Assembly.
Therefore sustainability wasn’t really an issue for my situation.
The most difficult decision I had to make was to drop my master’s degree (at least for now). Other than the impossible time commitment to work, school and startup, I made the decision for 3 reasons:
- Interests — I have a BS in aerospace engineering and I was set to continue with an accelerated master’s. However, I fell in love with studying artificial intelligence. What I wanted to study and what I was studying simply no longer aligned.
- Values — I come from an immigrant family so my parents value accomplishments highly. It was important to get a graduate degree since that’s how our family was able to secure opportunities in the United States. After all, proof of skill makes you equal to your peers regardless of your race or ethnicity. While I do believe this, I interpreted ‘proof of skill’ a little differently.
- Timing — Thanks to SpaceVision 2017, Abstract Assembly had a first customer. Whereas I could go back to school at any point in my life (difficult as that may be), our customer certainly would not wait forever. Besides, I already had a bachelor’s degree that makes me reasonably qualified for most jobs I want. Therefore I concluded that giving my startup a real chance while the opportunity was present was more important than finishing my master’s.
As you can see, I was in a position where starting up would not derail my life completely. In truth, my decision was more on the side of impulse than logic — a lot of this risk analysis was done in reflection.
My decisions are usually based off of gut feelings first and then rationalized with facts and figures. However, it’s quite possible for the facts to debunk feelings.
Don’t deny when this happens. Instead, you should either explore other options around your barriers or consider the case that you might have to wait before the timing in your life permits you to start up.
You have to accept the realities set before you.
Tip #3: Make a SMART decision
Finally, it’s time to make a decision. And in my experience, the best way to structure your decision is by making it like a conditional SMART goal.
If you’ve never heard of SMART goals before, they are a way to ensure your goals are manageable. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Acheiveable, Realistic and Timed. Your decision to start up should have a specific objective that has a number attached to it. It should also be achievable and realistic in the given timeline.
For Abstract Assembly, our objective is to build a sustainable business in the the small satellite industry. That means that all employees (like myself) must be full-time and paid while still earning a profit. We’ve also decided that bootstrapping by working volunteer, part-time roles is no big deal for now since we would all be doing this as a hobby anyway. Finally, I’ve given myself 5 years (until I’m 27) to see this through.
Making SMART decisions promote peace of mind and helps avoid an early-life crisis.
Decisions about starting up should be made intelligently. They should be grounded in your values, checked against risks and forged into a strong decision. This will let you develop trust in yourself as you trek along the startup journey.
As always, be sure to visit our website and Facebook page if you’d like to learn more about Abstract Assembly, our team, and how we’re speeding up the engineering design process!
