Posted by kari.petroschmidt
So where were we… right, okay so you have an idea for a business, a burning little nucleus of uncertain fate smoldering away in the back of your mind. Only, it’s fate is certain if you do nothing about it, CERTAIN DEATH; and certain regret, and the “woulda, shoulda, couldas” that inevitably come months, years later when you see that very same idea being taken to the bank by some smarmy prick who “stole your idea.”
If your curiosity has been piqued by a business idea to the extent that you are reading this page then I cannot encourage you enough to take the next step. If you are younger, relax, you can afford to hit and miss and will inevitably gain priceless experience at the very least, and if you happen to be older, well what’s left to lose? So let the lesser lights swill their SoGo’s murmuring in quiet desperation about how they thought of Facebook first and invented the Ahh-Bra years ago, you are deserving and fortunate enough to have had your flash of brilliance now and with a potent cocktail of confidence, good advice, timing, dedication and a little luck, you can transform even the barest vision into a thing of shape and contour.
Starting up a new venture in the warlike conditions of the modern business environment you will be traversing a minefield of highs and lows, joys, sorrows, illusions, fear, hope, anxieties and excitement but the process, regardless of the outcome, is a rite of passage, and on the other side you will have gained an experience and a voice that can come from nowhere else. The attainment of your ambitions through the perfection of your craft, whatever that may be, is the ultimate reward, and one that you can win if you are willing.
Of course the flip side to this blind optimism is that the odds are horribly, horribly against you. The actual numbers vary across industry sectors but roughly seventy-five percent of startups won’t last ten years, but so what? Twenty-five percent will and out of those that don’t how many of them learn from their mistakes, adapt, and come back even stronger with real world experience behind them?
The sad truth is most people are either too stupid to know a good idea when they see it, or too lazy to do anything about it. But they’re not reading this, you are. So pull that tiny smoldering nucleic spark from the back of your mind, take a long, deep breath, and blow.