Is the Honeymoon Period over? — The Plunge continues (Part 3)
The working life of an entrepreneur can be rose-coloured to an outsider. This article from the Economist touches on the realities of how hard being an Entrepreneur is: “Instead of romanticising entrepreneurs, people should understand how hard their lives can be”.
You need to be willing to fail and start over — on micro and macro issues. You can’t be fixed on anything going as planned. Each day will bring some new challenge: see that as a new opportunity to learn and grow.
Anders Røpke divulges how he is feeling and progressing in his second month as an entrepreneur.
Adrenal Fatigue?
Mental chemistry is now low on adrenaline from taking the plunge. But I found out that keeping my structure, using Trello and the Disciplined Entrepreneurship (DE) 24 steps [Bill Aulet’s book that is the foundation on which the MIT Entrepreneurship course is built], keeps me focused. I deliver new pieces to the project every hour by keeping myself busy with all the perspectives you need to cover in the DE 24 Steps. So to me it’s a great help.
What I will take from this is to transfer the 24 Step model thinking to my team members. They did not have the pleasure of being soaked by the MIT firehose and they need to understand why this structured approach is so valuable for our project.
A disciplined approach to engage and collaborate with my team
I have done one thousand spreadsheets, slide deck presentations and documents on this idea of mine. On top of that I have one thousand thoughts and mental notes on project insights, things to address, remember or just understand. So now I find myself with a team of four. We are two in the same room every day, one on remote in the same time zone and then a fourth team member in a whole different time zone.
My primary task since day one in this company has been to involve the team in the many facets of the idea and the product we are designing. It is a crazy journey to get people to think and understand, and to get the entire team to a level of understanding of what we are doing. So I decided to use all I learned on MIT on structured entrepreneurship. I simply took DE book and started with Step 1. Completed the step and documented it all in a couple of slides (old corporate habit that is actually useful). Then I circulated the work in the team, with a short description on why we have to look into this specific step and an invitation for feedback. Slowly over the last week we have now moved through Step 2, 3, 4 … A couple of steps a day. I checked a few times with the team if regular updates on steps made sense. They were all positive about it, to be involved, so I continued to submit steps without asking.
Today we have reached the Step on LTV (Life-Time Value) and COCA (Cost of Customer Acquisition). And now I got what I asked for — I have the entire team engaged in price points, value creation, cost assumptions, etc. Because it makes sense to discuss these elements within the team. Of course I have most of the information captured and thought through already. But this new iteration, captured in the mandatory steps, actually reveals new stuff, better assumptions and more precise estimates. This is how we will work as a team now.
Don’t underestimate the need for social interaction
I am very lucky that I started this adventure with a team, instead of just on my own. The social part of this plunge is a big deal. You really need social contact, every day. At least when you are me. So to have a team within reach, on Skype, call, in office, no matter how, that counts.
Linking the social aspects of a new venture to something bigger than just the idea seems the direction to follow. While working on my vision, turning it into our project, it becomes evident that company values aren’t just some corporate gimmick. We need company values in our start up and we need to figure out the ones that make sense to all of us.
A message from the Universe
A few days before handing in his corporate badge, Anders had an unusual encounter and a quirky conversation on the street, he called it a funny “message from the Universe”.
Stay positive or stay away
I just read the “F*** You Start Up World” on Medium. Who can disagree to “put your f***ing Mac away and go play with your kids.” I agree to most of the points by this article and have also started to pay attention to the unattractive parts that we all see in the fairytale world of start-ups. It is all about fame and fortune, being that mysterious geek-like oracle that really can take a deep look into the technological future ahead of all of us.
I meet a lot of nice people, helpful people and people that just mind their own business. Without trying to convince you with all their ‘I know better than you do’ style. We share ideas and help each other out when possible. We give a boost up without expectation of a return.
People continue to respond to what I am doing differently.
“Ha ha, good luck — when do you plan to get your day job again?”
“Is that your idea? That’s easy to do, I can do that” — so why don’t you?
And finally, from an entrepreneur “You will lose it all, family, friends, your money, your home. Are you really ready to go through with all that in order to be a true entrepreneur?”
My answer to that one is, ‘No way. Family first.” It is OK to leave people who are not a fit with you or have something constructive to add to what you are doing. A trick I have learned from one of my best friends. Stay positive or stay away. This is also why values and what we stand for are such an important part of my new company´s profile. We are a team of humans, and some computers, with a license to pursue a dream. Our own choice. Let us see where that will bring us and enjoy the ride with respect of the people we meet on our way.
Second thoughts and the power of the pack
Today has been a rollercoaster ride. Still enjoying my way to my new office. Fresh air and wind in the face will wake you up. On my way I noticed that Fall has hit Copenhagen. Did I notice last year?
It is getting darker now, both in the morning and in the evening. I managed to hand in the kiddos at 8 AM today. Success! And I also managed to get my head organised on my way in. Success! Downside of being a virtual team is the lack of physical presence. And I am what you call a social parrot, I like to have people around me. So this week I am a bit on my own, in the office. And I can actually feel how it would have been if I was on this venture on my own. I can promise you all, that this is not a nice feeling. It actually gave me a bit of second thoughts and I also started wondering what I would do if the team members potentially would quit.
I learned from this that reaching out to your team, to discuss this, is actually the strongest and best way to make such doubtful feelings go away. Just saying out loud “I really appreciate you being part of this team” and getting the same acknowledgement back is wonderful in this phase of creating the company values and spirit. And then I topped it off by getting a couple of Trello board tasks executed. That was a very powerful way to get back in the driver’s seat of this venture.
Going forward I will make sure that we nurture a common set of values we all can relate to. I will also make sure to show my gratitude towards my team members. Without this team we cannot make it. Simple as that.
The team continues to grow
Last week we had our first job interview. One of my partners and I met with a potential candidate for a position in Wind Power LAB. We needed a brilliant developer that can design and build our API for our service. My partner and I had a brief discussion on how to handle this interview. Should we focus on skills like quality, coding skills, etc.? or should we focus on the social and emotional intelligence side of things? After all we are a small team and we need good people only. That means we cannot bring anyone without social skills onboard our “pirate ship”. It is a big deal this part of new ventures. We are forming a culture. And whatever we are forming will be here to stay with us, as part of this company´s DNA. So we take the liberty to assess 360 degrees.
What I have learned from this line of thoughts and the discussions with my partner is that we need to stand up for social and emotional intelligence as equally important parameters when assessing a potential candidate. We all left our jobs because we didn’t feel part of the culture, the journey, the values.
Let me not make that mistake while being captain myself. Going forward we need to remember this when we are growing like hell. It should be a quality inherent in all future candidates.
Disrupting Habits and Flow
Getting stuff done is great. Even greater if you know how. So I have been looking into creating some new habits. Two things came up.
First thing is that I am trying to be disciplined with my tasks. We are using Trello for all our tasks — with a Backlog, a Doing list and a Done list. The simple thing of finding a task on the Backlog, move it to Doing, get the job done and then move the task to Done, that’s a true feeling of execution. Eventually our backlog got crowded. So what I have done is to create my private list of tasks, just between the Backlog and the Doing lists. Every night I choose 5–6 tasks from the Backlog and move them to my private backlog. This is my task overview for tomorrow, in a prioritised order. By doing this I can just start working on the most important task when I get into the office. And when something unexpected shows up, then my workday is prepared for this: actually increasing my ability to adapt to unexpected tasks and to get into flow-mode, through a kind of anti-fragile work habit.
Second thing is way more radical, at least to a workaholic like me. Leaving your laptop in the office when you go home. Sounds strange? Then you might have the same problem as me. When I manage to leave my laptop in office, I get home to my family and have a better chance of relaxing. I have prevented myself from checking emails from home. I do not know the passwords, as I used the pre-populated functionality when setting these up. Great! That means offline time. Which again forces me to be home when I am home. Leaving office in the afternoon gives me about 12+ hours without emails. You can actually feel this in the morning, feeling ready for work. I am not a saint, so sometimes I bring my laptop home and work in the evening. If I need to get something done. But it is not the normal habit and kind of an extra gear I can change to if needed. Balanced performance I call it, that will make me last.
In case you have missed the previous articles from The Plunge series, you can read them here:
article 1: The Plunge Project — A Social Experiment in the Making (Part 1)
article 2: The Plunge Project — A Social Experiment in the Making Continues (Part 2)
‘The Plunge Project’ was created to capture and share one man’s account of the realities of transitioning from the working in the Corporate world to becoming a full-time Entrepreneur. We invite you to travel alongside us as Anders’ journey unfolds over the next two months. Maybe you are currently in the same position as Anders? Or you have dreams of ‘taking the plunge’ or know someone who does? Follow www.infinityfoundry.com/theplunge
