Turning It "On": My Start With Entrepreneurship

There were a lot of things that happened when I made the decision to move forward and turn an idea into a project, which would later turn into an app and a company. Some things were planned and anticipated, some weren't. Here is my honest reflection of my first trials and triumphs!

1. Being an anxious person makes every stressful day worse

From the very beginning when I thought my first step was to find a tech co-founder I was having anxiety and panic attacks. Every single phone call I had to try to convince someone this would work made my heart go faster than your sports car. I'm someone who has anxiety as a part of everyday all the time, but having this added pressure - thinking I couldn't do this without convincing someone was almost enough to make me stop right there.

But it didn't stop me.

I realized I had obviously done something wrong. I reached out to entrepreneurship directors and experienced mentors and set meetings with them to make plans and gain a solid understanding of what I needed to do. Their advice? Wait on the tech co-founder and start doing research & wireframes, and so I did.

2. Getting people to take you seriously

Sorry if you thought I was going to tell you how to convince everyone in your life this is a solid project and you're going to absolutely kill it. It turns out that's not possible, at least not that I've found. You'll have professionals believe in you 110% and your own family and friends shrug it off. And that's hard. Really hard. But the whole idea of starting a successful company is tough and the truth is a lot of people don't do it well - and so people don't feel the need to become emotionally invested or believe in you unless they have a reason to.

So give them a reason to.

It's hard to convince someone you're the next Jeff Bezos, because you probably aren't. But, you're you and you're creating something from scratch to solve a real problem in the world. So create things, create wireframes and conduct research. Then conduct more research. Validate the problems you saw and modify your product based on what the market research tells you. Then show them and explain it to them, don't try to impress them - your work will do that for you. When you start having something to show for your 50+ hours/week and can explain the research it's a lot easier for people to understand and believe that it's a great idea - and take you seriously. Some still may not, but take them as motivation to keep pushing harder or let it go - but do one of those things so that it doesn't hold you back.

3. Spending 50+ hours/week for no pay is not glorious.

I think the time entrepreneurs spend slaving over their creations is glorified as the trade off for the "good life" when they make it but the truth is it sucks. It sucks getting off work from your full time job just to have twice as many meetings, tasks, and sheer work to do than earlier in the day and getting paid for none of it. But, it's also fulfilling. I get the most excitement and the greatest feeling of success after ending a night of interviews, redesigning of wireframes or icons, and research. I believe in what I'm doing and so I don't question this time investment - but drinking lattes at 9pm outside of my local Panera sure isn't glorious.

Every journey is unique.

This is just mine. These are things I have encountered in the last couple of weeks since I decided to fully commit and start on this project. This may not be what your journey was like, or what your journey will be - but I think many of you may find some interesting takeaways. I've listed some for you below:

Invest your time. In yourself, your career, your relationships, or a venture. But don't take it for granted.

Not everyone has to like you, support you, believe in you, or take you seriously. Take yourself seriously and treat yourself with respect. The rest will come.

Managing your time is an invaluable skill.

Don't quit just because one thing isn't going like you thought. Everything was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but every week I'm more excited and more passionate. If you're not being driven by passion maybe you should reconsider why you're doing this.

Anxiety is real and sometimes it really does make simple daily tasks harder. Respect your friends & coworkers who get it/have it and cut them some slack once in awhile, or at least just have patience and kindness.

If you have an idea for how to solve a real problem, pursue it. Do some research. Explore it more. You don't have to make the decision to "turn it on" right away, but you shouldn't ignore something that you're passionate about and that could change lives, or even the world.