Startup Stories Episode #1: The story of MYeBook - A digital self-publishing business

This post is dedicated to every entrepreneur. The aim, to make public your start up story. The birth of your business.  The pain and passion that poured from you during those weeks and months when you were alone. (That’s how it would have felt.)

My reason for sharing start-up stories is simple: I don’t think successful business-owners share enough of these lonely times as they let their idea loose into the wild. These early times are a roller coaster of mushy-emotion ranging from the extreme highs to the pits of despair and back, every day.

New entrepreneurs who are at this delicate stage between employment and launching their business often feel alone and isolated. It would help someone in that position immeasurably to know that their journey is not made in isolation and that every day and in every city, people like you are taking the leap and investing in an idea that is larger than themselves.

Each and every local “garage start-up” story I come across gives me a warm feeling. Your choice to leave the perceived comfort of employment will not feel as crazy as it did before after you realise that others are doing the same thing.

I know that if more of these start-up stories were shared, that a new entrepreneur would realise that they too have the seed of something great inside them. Every successful business idea was first launched from someone’s basement, garage or bedroom.

Let’s share these stories to show others in a similar, vulnerable position that we were there too a few years ago (and some of us still are!).

Alrighty! Let me introduce the story behind my startup, if you like the story I would really appreciate your feedback in the comments :)

MyeBook – A digital publishing start-up founded in 2012.

About the founder

Name: David Henderson

Age: 31 (May 1985)

Born: Durban, South Africa

Business founded: 2012

Business Page: www.MYeBook.co.za

About the business.

MYeBook is what I consider to be an online business first and foremost. Run almost entirely remotely our passion is empowering authors by assisting them to publishing eBooks online.

Your early life

I was raised in a family where money and business where the furthest things from dinner-table talk possible. My mother was (and still is) a teacher at a primary school whilst my father served in the South African police services. I completed all schooling in Durban and was lucky enough to study further and obtain my National Diploma in Light Current Engineering. I worked numerous professions over the next 9 years totalling 6 jobs before I had turned 30.

Employment history

My work like ranged from very technical – A bench technician that fixed all manner of electronics through to working as a database admin within the banking industry. My last two positions where that of a technical sales engineer and lastly, the position from which I permanently resigned, was as operations manager of an engineering firm.

(The position in sales was ironically enough inspired directly after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.)

Why working for someone else did not cut it.

Employment was never able to answer my soul’s needs fully. Each job always seemed to only tick a few boxes while leaving others painfully-empty. At some jobs I had a great boss, others I had had great co-workers. Some positions afforded me exciting customer facing roles whilst others paid handsomely.

No job ever ticked all of them.

I remember vividly occasions where I would look at my co-workers and think to myself “  I don’t want to be like them”. This restlessness never left. I ignored my frustration for years and continued to move from job to job thinking that the problem was that I had not found the right one.

Then at age 25 a friend loaned me “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and everything changed.

Your defining moment

Locking myself in the bathroom at work and weeping tears of frustration wondering of this was really what life was meant to be.

Your business idea

I am very cautious by nature and accordingly the vehicle of my exit from employment was discovered entirely by accident (as is normally the case I guess.)

My father (who is an author) was offered a deal where he would write books on topics that would be provided by a third party. He would then receive some of the profits. Chatting with me the one day he wondered if this is not something we could do with just the two of us. He would write the material and I would help him publish online.

Our pilot eBook project hit many snags as eBook technology was still so new to the world and especially in South Africa. However somewhere in between finding reliable eBook publishers and immersing myself in the technology of making and publishing eBooks the seed of the business was planted.

I booked out the domain www.MYeBook.co.za in June of 2012

For two years I lived a double life, working full day and then working at my own business at night. Every (small) success within my own business would make me want to work the next night. This continued until the point where I could not easily balance the responsibility of working two jobs.

I realised to give the business the best chance possible I needed to make the leap.

What helped you decide to quit your job?

I remember opening up a Word document one night and pouring every fear that was stopping me from leaving my job onto the screen. I came up with some scary looking things such as the fear of failure and the fear of being too lazy to succeed.

After listing out every fear that my little-voice could muster I answered each and every one in writing as if it were nothing but a high-school assignment. That exercise in voicing my fears and then answering each and every one was the best thing I ever did.

I was able to quit my job a few weeks later.

What did you do right at the start?

I think the best choice I ever made was not leaving my job when angry or upset with my boss or my circumstances. Starting and running my business part-time was the best thing I could have ever done. It meant that by the time I resigned I had a working business model waiting for me.

My job was then to just scale the business up.

Helpful advice you received?

One of the best things to happen to me at the start of my solo-journey was when a friend introduced the concept of shared-office space to me. I found a business nearby where many different entrepreneurs were working remotely from the same office space. For a small cost I was able to sit next to a diverse crowd of people all running businesses from under the same roof. This type of community was a very strong tool in the months to come when loneliness crept in.

If my start-up story inspired you please let me know. Once I start receiving comments from happy readers I will interview the next start-up  :)