The Start Of Something Special

American poet and writer, Carl Sandburg, once said that “nothing happens unless we first dream.” For entrepreneurs, failure knocks at the door, waiting to crush their dreams. Still, no matter how many times people will tell someone that their idea or dream is foolish, they still pursue it. No matter the number, the entrepreneur sees what some fail to recognize, opportunity.

Off just a ‘dream’, an individual is willing to put it all on the line. How many times have you heard of the 9-5 worker leaving the corporate world to start their own company? There is nothing glamorous about being an entrepreneur. You have an idea, you start your company, and you hope for the best. Aside from picking the name of your company and who will work with you, you control little more than that. So why do entrepreneurs ride this dream for all its worth? Is there an attraction to the thrill of the unexpected?

Dreaming Like You’re 9 Years Old

There is no simple explanation as to why entrepreneurs are willing to risk it all. Everyone has their own reasons, just like everyone has their own dreams. But step back for a moment and go back to when you were 9 years old. At that age, I remember that the most I had to worry about was whether or not I would make it back home in time to watch X-Men and how to avoid doing homework. At 9, our minds were full of creativity and ideas just waiting to burst. While we still are full of creative ideas the big difference is that at 9 years old that dream became something you had to share and make happen.

For example, when I was 9 I had a dream that I could turn my tricycle into a sleigh similar to the one Santa Claus had. Using my dogs as reindeer, I spent an entire day fashioning my 3-wheeler into a makeshift sleigh. Even better, I had the brilliant idea of using dog treats as motivation for the dogs to pull me. By throwing the dog treat forward I would get them to move and thus pulling me anywhere I wanted to go. As great as this sounded at the time, I must stress the point that at this stage of my life I was still afraid of the dark, hated vegetables and didn’t know what the SAT meant. Long story short, the dogs pulled like I planned, but instead dragged me about 100 yards after I fell off the bike. Although it was a failure in many aspects, that’s what being a kid meant. While the risks maybe greater as an entrepreneur, the same mentality is there: follow your dreams without fear of the unexpected.

Waking Up From The Dream

For entrepreneurs, not all dreams can last forever. Perhaps it didn’t work out or it just wasn’t meant to happen. The beauty of a dream though is that once you ‘wake up’ from one, you can start again. For the lucky ones, you may never have to wake up from it. Take Bill Gates for example. I think many would agree that although he’s had some bumps along the way, he’s “living the dream.”

When I think of entrepreneur’s that chase their dreams, I am reminded of something that the Greek scholar, Euripides once said:

The wisest men follow their own direction.

As the saying goes, impossible is nothing.

As the sun begins to set, the work day does not end. Instead, work continues late into the night with sleep the last thing on one’s mind. This is the life I have chosen. — An Entrepreneur

As an entrepreneur, if you want to ‘survive’ and make it off the ‘island’, then you must succeed. Failure is not an option, yet it is the most common result. In what can be called odd, so many people choose to play this game of ‘entrepreneurship’ even though they are fully aware that odds are against them.

The biggest question that one may ask is “Why play?” For some it is the thrill of watching their dreams take flight while for others it just comes natural. Just how some are born natural athletes, some are just natural entrepreneurs. For those that choose to follow their dreams and ideas, they find themselves stranded on an island with only one way off: success. This is as real as it gets. No one tells you how to play the game, nor how to succeed. You have to trust your instinct and most of all your dream.

The Island

With little resources and new problems at every corner, an entrepreneur is essentially on an island of his own, trying to find a way off of it. An entrepreneur stuck an on island is never there by accident. This is the path they have chosen. This isn’t some reality TV show where producers are making sure that they are safe and secure. Instead, this is as real as it gets. If you lose, you don’t get to try again, you just have to keep moving forward.

Your “Tribe”

Once on the island, an entrepreneur quickly realizes the difficulty in trying to ‘survive’ without any help. Without help, the chances of success are lower. Thus the concept of the ‘tribe’ is introduced. The tribe that one forms as an entrepreneur shares a common and important trait: the belief that they will succeed. When one member of the ‘tribe’ begins to waiver in confidence, group morale is affected.

Just like in a company, a tribe has its own hierarchy. From the leader of the group to the support lines, each part of the tribe plays an essential role. The startup ‘tribe’ is unique in that individuals within the group may be asked to take on different roles and assignments. For a tribe to be successful it is imperative that there be some sort of flexibility within the group. A member that is able to take on many different tasks is far more valuable than someone that can only do one.

Create Your Own Map

As an entrepreneur you can read as much you want on how to start a business, but in the end their is no blueprint to success. No two success stories are the same. They may be similar, but no two are identical. As an entrepreneur not only are you an island, but you are also without a map. Instead you are to make your own. There is not set path you can take, you decide where it goes.

The hardest part about not having a ‘map’ are the distractions you come across along the way. Because you make your own decisions and don’t have to follow a set route, opportunities that may seem like the right choice may in fact just be a distraction and slow you down. I believe Jack Ma, CEO and Founder of Alibaba.com said it best:

If there are nine rabbits on the ground and you want to catch one, just focus on one.  Change your tactics if you need to, but don’t change the rabbit you’re focused on.  Just stick with it.

Being able to identify between good opportunities and dead-ends is crucial. Time is money and dead-ends are just a waste of time.

Giving Up

As an entrepreneur when one finds the odds against them and no end in site, giving up shouldn’t be an option. Instead of giving up, one needs to realize that as humans we are not perfect and that we will make mistakes. From those mistakes, we need to learn from them and make the appropriate adjustments the next time around. Giving up means you are accepting defeat. The enemy of an entrepreneur is doubt. Doubt that what they have been working toward is nothing but a failure. If one intends to be successful, being able to cast away doubt must first be done.

The island for entrepreneurs symbolizes two things: isolation and dreams. The isolation refers to the experiences that an entrepreneur faces when they leave the 9-5 jobs. People can offer you help, but as an entrepreneur, you are alone. No one but yourself and team will be able to say “I understand. Also on the island, dreams can become reality. An entrepreneur starts with an idea and works to making it become a reality.

Many have succeeded in making it off the island, but many more are still waiting for ‘big’ break. It may take weeks, months, and even years, but we are all looking for the day we make it off the island.

One of the hardest things you can attempt to do is to turn a startup into a successful company. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the startup I am part of is a success, we have made significant strides toward it. I have heard that startup companies fail for many reasons. From poor leadership to lack of funding, the odds are against you, but that is how we like it.

Aside from the common obstacles that most startups face, we at Future Delivery have a unique obstacle that most other startups don’t encounter. While I wouldn’t call our obstacle a problem, I would say that it poses a wild-card element to the startup life. Over last 2 years our company has gone through many changes. The biggest of which is the relocation of our CEO and the addition of new members to our team from different parts of the map. With 2 core team members in Los Angeles and 2 in Silicon Valley and several others in different parts ranging from Texas to Turkey, we are not just a startup, but a global startup.

Our CEO, Yu-Kai Chou moved to Silicon Valley in a move that he felt would make the company stronger in terms of being able to network with tech savvy individuals in that area as well as meet investors for our company. Currently, Jun Loayza and myself are here in the Los Angeles area working primarily on marketing. With such a great distance between us, the question is how does this affect us? Now it would be a lie if I said that everything is fine, but in all honesty we would love it if we could all be in the same area working together. This past week I was able to meet up with Yu-Kai and spend some time working along side him as well as getting to know him better.

I had met Yu-Kai only once before this week, with all other times being through our weekly Skype meetings and through email. Although I had only met him once before this week, I felt like he was a friend I had known for a long time. From our talks, I was able to learn a lot from him. We talked about many things ranging from what inspired him to start Future Delivery to what his outlook on this year was. From just a couple hours of talking with him, I had learned so much. I can only imagine how much more I could learn from him if we could meet more often.

Yes, it is true that even though we are all located in different parts of the globe that we can still stay in touch through email and Skype, but that still can’t take the place of meeting someone in person. When the team is together, we work diligently and get a lot done. When we are not together, we still work hard and get a lot done, but there is still an element missing. It is hard to say exactly what element but to help explain it, it is like winning a basketball game but no one is around to see it. You can bring home the trophy and show your friends and family, but you are still wishing they came to see you play. I have no qualms about our team not being closer together, but I wouldn’t mind it. I am confident with the makeup of our core team members, we have the personality and drive to stay productive and headstrong.

How Can You Be Successful While So Far Apart?

Even though we are in different places and in different time zones, that doesn’t mean we can’t be successful. A long distance relationship is hard and difficult but you still do it because you love the other person. For us, that other person is our company. We love our company.  Through it all, we have learned to adapt and stay focused. Here are some things that we do in our company to help us be productive and operate:

Email Communication

Add us on Gmail and you will see us on Gmail Chat at least 4-5 hours out of the day. This is one of the easiest ways for us to stay in touch with each other and we are constantly in contact. Aside for emailing each other updates and questions, we also CC each other on important emails from our clients so that we all have a firm understanding of what is going on.

Skype

Good thing Skype is free, because if we had to pay per minute, we might be broke by now. We have a weekly meeting every week through Skype where we talk about goals for the next week as well as updates from the last one. This is where we can just catch up on what’s been going on in our lives as well as see if there are any things we need to focus on.

Google Docs. Scoreboard

Created by Yu-Kai, the scoreboard system is almost like a work diary where we can assign points to every ‘task’ we complete. It is a way to increase productivity through friendly competition and also to keep track of what we have worked on. I highly suggest doing this as it is a great way to make sure everyone is focusing on the appropriate tasks.

Just like my earlier analogy about comparing our company to a long distance relationship, anyone who gets into a long distance relationship does it in hopes of one day reuniting with their significant other. We hope that one day we will be able to work side by side with each other and work toward making our company successful. Until then, distance will not stop us.

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Photo by Proud Dad

]]> http://www.josephayi.com/blog/the-global-startup/feed/ 0 http://www.josephayi.com/blog/from-start-to-finish-watching-your-project-grow/ http://www.josephayi.com/blog/from-start-to-finish-watching-your-project-grow/#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:51:54 +0000 Joseph Yi http://www.josephayi.com/blog/?p=511

Many adults say that one of the greatest gifts in life is having the opportunity to watch their kids grow from infants all the way to adulthood. While some may say otherwise, there is nothing more rewarding than watching something that you have invested a great amount of time in and watching it flourish. As an entrepreneur, you are the parent and your projects are your children. Whether you are a startup tech company looking to create the next best thing, or just trying to start your own restaurant, whatever it is you put those extra hours in becomes your ‘kid’.

Speaking with many entrepreneur’s one of big reasons that they chose to leave the corporate world and enter the startup life is because they wanted the satisfaction of being able to create their own project and help guide it in the right direction. So what the big question then becomes is what drives an individual to continue to put in the time to make a project grow. To best understand this it is helpful to use the analogy of being a parent and watching your child grow.

I myself don’t have any kids, but from what others who have kids have told me, you lose a lot of hair along the way, but in the end, it’s worth it. Just like when a child is in its baby stage and they need your attention 24/7. So is the same with a startup project. When you have a great idea you can’t wait to get started with it. You love it so much that you are willing to work late into the night and live off only powerbars and energy drinks. Sleep is hard to come by, but you tell yourself that it is all worth it. Why? Because the project is yours.

As a child grows from infant to adolescent, this is where they learn by exploring and they begin to ask questions. As a parent they are proud to bring their child to school and are eager to meet other parents to setup play dates and to share tips on the best way to pack a lunch. Similar to that, as your project begins to take form and you are eager to share it with your close friends to get their opinion as well to show it off like a prized possession. For an entrepreneur, hearing positive feedback from others is equivalent to your child bringing home a good report card. Still, it is a growing process. During this time, you still need to put in those long hours for your project, but you are beginning to have an idea of what exactly your finished project may look like.

As an adolescent turns into a teenager, parents begin to worry whether they have brought them up to be ‘model’ citizens. In the same sense, entrepreneurs go through a stage where they wonder if they have built their project the ‘right’ way. This brings up the good question though of what is ‘right.’ What is considered ‘right’ is typically just a reflection of what society as a whole or majority thinks. For the entrepreneur, this doubt or questioning of one’s project can be crippling. During this stage entrepreneurs will find themselves struggling over not only the project itself, but also variables indirectly connected to it. From internal issues within the project team, to funding issues, this is when an entrepreneurs composure is tested most.

In what can be considered the final stage of growth, teens eventually enter adulthood. While the law views children as adults when they turn 18, parents still want to hang on to them as long as possible. It is hard to believe that after years of watching them grow, they are almost ready to be on their own. For entrepreneurs and startups, the final stage is when the project is ready to be released to the public. While there may still be ‘bugs’ in the project that still need to be worked out, the project for the most part is completed and is ready to be presented to the world. The hours of designing, planning, and sleepless nights have paid off. While I described the final stage being the release and completion of the project, this doesn’t mean that the project is left alone. Just like how parents check up on their kids to see how they are doing and to see if they need any help, so is the same with a project turned ‘product.’ Entrepreneurs will continue to monitors its progress and make any necessary adjustments to help it run better.

Entrepreneurs always have great ideas for new projects and are always excited to see them come to life. Perhaps this quote explains it best on what it means to think up or start a project:

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

If you have an idea for a project, remeber that there is always room in this world for one more great idea.