Only after experience will you know.
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Editor’s note: Entrepreneurship is not a child’s play, and the probability of failure is extremely high. Forming a successful organization is not easy, and there are many things that can go wrong. If you are going to start a business or are starting a business, you can learn valuable lessons from those you have experienced, and you can continue to improve your chances of success. The author of this article introduces five important lessons he learned in his entrepreneurial journey, and I hope to help you. Article translated from Medium, author Nicolas Cole, original title 5 Brutal Lessons About Entrepreneurship I Learned My First Year As A Startup Founder.
More than a year ago, I persuaded one of my close friends Drew Reggie to resign and join my entrepreneurial journey.
A few months ago, I quit my job in the advertising industry and lived a comfortable life as a freelance writer. He is about to complete his MBA, but clearly expresses his lack of passion for the future: finding a high-paying job in the cubicle of a large company.
“I want to create something,” he said. “You know, with my employees, and finances. I don’t want to be a freelancer, I want to start a company.”
“Then why don’t you try it with me?” I asked dozens of times. “With the money we saved, do you really think we can’t solve the problem within a year?”
After 12 months, we have a full-time team and a company that is more successful than we imagined.
The name of the Digital Press project was what we came up with while drinking coffee and chatting with many people on the balcony of the apartment. It is also an attempt by us to make the smartest people in the world share what they know.
So, as a founder, I want to share with you the important lessons that I have created from scratch in the past year.
Lesson 1: You actually do n’t know anything (but it does n’t matter).
Before starting a business, I was very lucky to have a mentor. Ron Ji, my friend and columnist in Inc. magazineRon Gibori taught me more about life and business than I asked to learn. But even after four years of tutoring, what I “know” is still only theory.
I haven’t felt it yet.
Before I took action, Ron told me, “When everything becomes chaotic, as a founder, you must bring peace.”
I did n’t understand what it meant until I started to realize that I created a company when the livelihoods of others were threatened.
Starting a business makes me feel ashamed. I find that this also makes many young entrepreneurs feel ashamed. They often want to change the world at first, but when they realize that this cannot be achieved overnight, those ambitions make them feel more stressed.
Theories are meaningful only if they have been personally experienced. So, become enthusiastic and start doing some big things. But remember, only when you can say “I have experienced”, you will really understand.
Lesson 2: Entrepreneurship that ignores personal development is a disaster.
One year after starting a business, I was surprised to find that the business world rarely talks about the value of personal development.
During the past 27 years, I have done many things. I was a professional player when I was a teenager and a bodybuilder when I was in college. But nothing can test me like entrepreneurship.
In my first year as an entrepreneur, I found that I would focus too much on business and ignore myself, and then things in my life would collapse. Interpersonal relationships, health, feelings … Everything is very painful, all because I think my career is my child, in order to see its success, I will at all costs.
It took me a long time to understand how unhealthy this is.
When you apply too much force, you will end up doing more harm than good.
I know that I will be an entrepreneur for the rest of my life. There is no turning back now, I have changed forever. But if in my career, I want to do one thing for the entrepreneurial community, it is to start a broader dialogue about the importance of personal development while starting a business.
If you lose yourself in this process, your company will suffer.
Lesson 3: Cash is gasoline.
Fortunately, I met other successful business leaders in my life, and their wisdom was passed down. But the most important point (as an entrepreneur, you will soon understand this) is the value of cash.
I have always been frugal, but starting a business has made me realize that I have far more money than a “saving account.” Money starts to have multiple meanings: the ability to survive, the ability to innovate, the future of the company, and the safety of disasters (as we now experience).
Without money, your company will disappear.
Before we had the idea of digital publishing, our savings account had been hollowed out. We help each other to pay the fee. When things went well and we started to build a profitable business, we all had the exact same idea: “Save as much cash as possible in the company.”
This is one of the lessons you have to learn, and you can even understand it theoretically, but you wo n’t really understand it until you actually start to increase staff and the monthly salary you pay increases.
Cash is gasoline. You don’t want to drive yourself in an empty car.
Lesson 4: The burden of opportunity really exists.
Despite this, a benign problem is still a problem.
As an entrepreneur, one of the worst things you can do is want to do too much at once. I have struggled with it in all aspects of life, because when you are curious about this world, you want to explore it.
Part of the reason why businesses can thrive is: simplicity. As my other tutor told me: “Simple, it’s speed.”
When we tried to build in multiple directions at the same time, we failed. We are overworked, exhausted, and even discouraged.
But when we can focus on improving one or two things at a time, we can “take off”.
This lesson fundamentally changed my view of business and my view of every pursuit in life.
Do only one thing at a time.
Lesson 5: Entrepreneurship is lonely.
No one will know how hard you work.
No one will give you the recognition or encouragement you deserve.
No one will sit there and cheer for you day after day.
When you are in trouble, no one will take responsibility.
No one can tell you which direction is right and which direction is wrong.
Starting a business is lonely because it means choosing your own way.
It took me a while to accept and deal with my inner emotions. Not only have your efforts not been recognized by most people in your life (at least not to the extent you want them to be), but you feel that you have let others down every step of the way.
You are not disappointing your other half because you have been working continuously for 17 hours, or disappointing your friend because you did not call back, or disappointing your co-founder because you are not timely enough to deal with the problem, Or maybe it ’s disappointing your employees because they did n’t get what they needed—or it ’s just that you were disappointed in yourself because you could n’t do all that.
This is one of the most difficult and cruel facts in entrepreneurship:
In the process of trying to get better, you will fail almost everything.
But do you know? It’s nothing.
Because at the end of the day, all you can do is do your best—then wake up the next day, try again, try again, try again.
Translator: Yoyo_J