And That’s A Wrap!

What a jam-packed 15 weeks this has been!

I worked at a startup over the summer and as I got to know the co-founders and all of the other wonderful employees, I saw just how much passion and hard work they put into the company they had built and were now striving to grow. But in reality, I had no idea... Founding is startup is f****** hard.

Hearing from past students who had taken Christina Wodtke’s Creative Founder class, they told me it was going to be hard, but that it was also going to be incredibly rewarding and I would be a different and better person by the end of it. They were right. It’s one thing to work at a startup, it’s a whole other thing to actually create one yourself.

I’ll admit though, having had the recent experience of working at a startup I came into this whole experience thinking it would be easier for me—if only a little. Yes, perhaps my vocabulary of tech-startup jargon and marketing experience were slightly greater than that of the average person in the class, but in general, I found that I struggled just as much as the rest.

Working as part of a team has always been tough for me; I’m an introvert and I prefer to work alone as opposed to with other people. It’s definitely been an uphill battle over the past few months, working with people I’d never worked with before, overcoming language barriers, and scheduling my own life in conjunction with two other people’s. But I’ve learned a lot.

I’ve learnt that if you want someone to do something, you have to be very clear about what it is that you need them to do and when you need it to be given to you.

I’ve learnt that being nice and being kind are not always the same thing, and sometimes you have to put your foot down and just say “No.”

And I’ve learnt that people care. If you give them a reason to trust you, they will have your back, and vice versa.

I don’t have any plans to go out and build my own startup any time soon, but I’m not going to write it off my list of options for the future either. If there’s one thing I’ve gained over the past 15 weeks it’s confidence. I’m excited to go into the coming semester and the coming years feeling like I can get up and present in front of a crowd of people (including people I’ve never met before who are judging me hardcore) without batting an eyelash. I feel grounded knowing that if I want to take an idea and run with it, I already know the paths to follow and the turns to take—even if it means a pivot. And I’m filled with gratitude for having had the experience of what it means to be part of a team and grow and move together, both in times of despair and celebration.

Here’s to myself, my teammates, my classmates, my mentors, my professors, and to the entirety of being a part of Creative Founder.