Day 0 — The Struggle Begins
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says;
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
I guess bungee jumping hadn’t been invented yet when they came up with that! I will say though that my transition from corporate America to entrepreneurship definitely feels way more like a giant leap of faith, than taking a single step.
I remember on my first day as a Financial Analyst, I sat down at my desk for the first time. The office was awfully quit and the silence was eery.
I wasn’t used to it.
I was used to the endless phone calls, the countless meetings and the numerous interviews and late night preparation.
It was there sitting at my desk for the first time, on my first day in Finance that I asked myself the infamous million dollar question;
“Is this all there is?”
By any normal account I should have been happy.
I wanted to be satisfied. But I just wasn’t.
I had worked incredibly hard to get my job in Finance and it hadn’t been an easy road for me. I had done whatever I could to get my ‘foot in the door’ and occasionally I might have been a ‘touch’ over the top.
I remember my first interview in the corporate world, where I had brought a HUGE spreadsheet printed to HALF THE SIZE OF A HUMAN backed on cardboard to the interview.
Discreet right?
I figured my ‘HUMAN SIZE’ spreadsheet would help me get across the point to my potential employer that I was good at Excel! Luckily the team loved my ridiculous spreadsheet, bought in and hired me.
The first day, the entire office was abuzz talking about how ridiculous the spreadsheet I had brought to the interview was.
The other temp they had hired sat at the ply wooden desk beside me. He swiveled his chair across the room and asked, “Why did you bring that huge spreadsheet to the interview? Everyone is talking about it. That is completely over the top.”
I replied, “You are lucky that they had two positions to hire. If they were only hiring for one position, who do you think would have gotten the job?”
(That was before I had figured out ‘Corporate Diplomacy’)
That said, I’ve always been a huge believer in preparation. The funny thing is that on the journey I am about to embark on, I feel I am not very well prepared. And by ‘unprepared’ I mean I am not very well prepared AT ALL!
I have no billion dollar idea, no magic success formula, no stable income.
Just ridiculous tenacity, creativity, strong work ethic coupled with a desire to learn, grow and improve my understanding.
I guess we will soon see if that is enough to become a successful entrepreneur. If that isn’t enough, there is a strong chance I could go very broke, very quickly! (The song ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’ comes to mind here)
My take on life so far is; “If you are going to fail, FAIL BIG, burn everything to the ground. Then toast marshmallows on the fire and laugh about it!
Many of my colleagues have asked me “Why now?”
To answer them, “Because tomorrow is too late.”
I have found that there is never really a ‘right time’ for anything. We don’t have time to wait for the stars to align perfectly by themselves. Life is just too frickin’ short. There will always be more bills, headaches and bullshit!
I believe these ‘leaps’ in life that we all consider so crazy and scary, are really just re-adjusting your focus. If have found that when you focus on what you don’t have or what you stand to lose by making a choice, you will always be paralyzed by your fears.
But if you focus on what you do have, what you could gain and what you are grateful for instead, you will be always driven to new heights by your strengths and the desire to improve and grow.
Needless to to say, I would prefer to live my life according to the latter philosophy.
That said, I want you to vicariously go through this journey with me. God knows I need some good company on the long road ahead.
Together let us see if we can finally put the myth of entrepreneurship to the test and finally answer:
“Is there any truth to the myth that entrepreneurship offers a definite form of salvation from the corporate world?”
Let’s find out together over the next few weeks!
(That said, I will be putting out updates three times a week starting Monday 15th, so you can join me on this journey and experience it with me by following this channel on Medium.)
