Blog 3.9 - Lesson #9 about year 1 of Start-up
Blog Caveat
? This isn’t going to include the obvious ‘lessons’ that aren’t really lessons because they’re inherently known and understood to be fact: "It’s hard" "takes a lot of work" "requires a lot of patience" "a little bit of luck" "it ain’t always pretty" etc...etc.
? After writing the list with full explanations and getting to 3,000 words, I’ve come to the conclusion that ain’t nobody got time for that! So due to the limitations of the style of blog LinkedIn allows I’ll release the details of each 1-day at a time. #Cliffhanger
? Comments and questions are greatly appreciated. Let’s start a conversation.
Lesson #9 about year 1 of Start-up
9. Talk to your parents about what you’re doing
Issue this alleviates: There’s very few people in our lives who support us as unconditionally as our parents, yet we still have this innate desire to impress them and make them proud. This is a very sensitive emotion when starting a new business, chapter in life, and especially if it’s one they don’t really understand.
What happened for us: Despite my parents knowing absolutely nothing about the eSports industry, as their son, I still had the obligation to share what I was up to. At first when I did this, I’d just mention the things that were going well, and how cool things were, etc. But as time went on, I found myself explaining more about the industry, the challenges, my ideas, asking for their feedback, and ultimately taking their advice!
Why this was important: First, the personal satisfaction of having open communication with those who you are closest to, such as your parents cannot go understated. With such a drastic change in one’s life, from safe corporate job and career, to unknown business in unknown industry with uncertain financial gain- you best believe you’ve got some explainin’ to do! Having unconditional support is one thing, but to have engaging conversations with my parents inspired confidence in what I was doing and made their threshold of trust in my decision even larger. Another benefit stemmed from the challenge of explaining to two senior citizens (sorry mom and dad!) about an emerging industry that’s targeted towards 13-22 year-olds and somehow get their buy-in. Mission accomplished!
Lessons 1-8, 10
1. It really helps when your product serves the needs/interests of your friend group
2. How you portray yourself to your market is more important than the reality
3. You need to be cocky enough to believe you will be the 1% that is successful
5. Identifying and asking someone to be your mentor is the most invaluable relationship
6. Don’t be afraid to take a step back and pivot
7. It’s okay to take up a job when you realize you need money to keep you going
8. It’s really hard to motivate people without paying them
10. Every platform is super important to be on, even LinkedIn for the eSports industry
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