Did I choose the hardest thing to do? | #DailyBlink82
Right after my graduation, I was in dilemma to pursue my career ahead. Having a degree in Computer Science, I wasn’t that much interested in joining IT Companies. Rather I was looking to join any startup where I would be learning about how a company works as it was my long term goal ahead.
Options I had:
👨🏻💻 Join an IT Company, having some savings, would be easier for me to startup.
💼 Join a startup, work for some years to gain experience, later start my own startup.
🚀 Start a startup. Bold but not impossible.
What did I choose?
Why not start a startup, bootstrap by providing services to the startup in my niche. Getting paid for learning and experiment is one of the best things ever. But here are some challenges that come with it:
🌈 Building Trust: You have to work for free to gain trust. This is an underrated hack most of us don’t understand. Trust is an undisputed currency in India. Anything to build trust.
🚂 Competitive Market: You have to outwork all the other offerings in the market so that you have an edge. Out-work, out-improve, out-last, and out-strategize. Repeat. The market never compromises.
💰 Underpaid: Sometimes 1/20th time of the market price [the remaining 19/20 times, you build your asset, for me, it’s absolutely worth it]. Started off with INR 2000 per month for two people. Glad we had savings from our previous freelancing works to survive through.
🌌 Show Up: No excuses, just works! Show up or move on. You are not alone in the queue.
Why not both “Job + Startup”?
If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.
When you have got no liabilities and just had to survive on the basic you become a cockroach, that refuses to die. And it is a great time to start with a cockroach startup in the Indian Startup Ecosystem especially when you are inexperienced with almost everything.
Did it work?
As I had no liabilities early in my career, I welcomed it as I knew, these steps would be an ultra-transformational hack for me in the long run as I would be learning directly involving myself with the market.
Most of the time, it’s easier to assume related to how a company work but all these would break up once you work with them. You get to understand the real insight from day to day operations, underlying principles involved, marketing, human resources, and most important the financial transactions.
🗻 It is always more than we get to see around us. Just the “the tip of the iceberg’
Liabilities I had to cover-up
Let's go to the basics. Survival Mode.
🍱 Food.
🏡 Shelter.
👕 Cloth.
💻 Infrastructure (internet, laptop, smartphone, books)
It is not worth unless it is adding up to your vision. Cut lose it.
That was all it was on my mind at that point in my mind and even while I’m typing this #DailyBlink, its the same and would be the same for the next few years. More things I possess, more attention it would require (we hardly talk about decorum & maintenance), and all I was focusing on sustainability for me and my team.
I know, this would help me save from my operational cost and that would allow me to re-invest the profits into scaling my startup.
What if I fail?
- I’d become a responsible team member/employee for a company/startup
- I will start again, it was all investment for lessons I had to learn
But everything comes at a cost. What are they?
- Not a standard lifestyle
- No Trips, Hangouts, Parties, Movies
- No Sleep, Late Nights, Insomnia
- Stress, Anxiety, Fear
- Cutting off from the friend circle
- Zero social status [Tags matter in Indian Societies]
- //
More than cost, I feel it was all investment that we don’t speak about much.
Did I choose the hardest things to do?
Well, with all the cells in my body, yes it was. I’d try to express it better next time.
Was it all worth it?
Only time will tell that, all I know was/is/will that I have to put in 💯 for my works. In the end, it’s only your works that matter.
Consumer surplus is such an underrated concept, the application is almost everywhere undoubtedly.
My takeaway from whatever I’m currently doing in my life: Learning life
About my startup: A marketplace to discover companies and startups and help you apply for jobs/internships in it based on the portfolio of your works.
Remember, your works matter in 21st first century. That is the only resume that speaks volumes for you.
If you are into startup, you must have thought of selling water subscriptions. Here’s a startup that is doing the same recently selected for Surge 02 Cohort from India.
Our best-in-class water purifiers give you the 3-in-1 advantage of RO+UV+UF, thereby giving you 99.99% clean and pure water which is free from dirt, microbes, and all foreign particles.
Here you can read a small brief from their founder on why it was a need of the hour:
