Simply get Started - now!

It’s not an easy step for many of us to become an entrepreneur. We have talked in our blogs about what it takes, the determination it needs, the extra drive and courage you need to be a true entrepreneur – but having said all that, you still need to start somewhere.

For me, it wasn’t obvious for a long time that I would own my own business. I was happy running the sales efforts for other start-ups, time and time again. It meant that I would start with nothing and build a business effectively from the ground up – and I would fiercely defend that chunk of the business against others that might want a piece of it. Competitors were dealt with, business plans made for my territories and so on. Looking at it with that greatest of tools – hindsight – you can clearly determine I was applying everything that you need to run a business. But I simply didn’t have the confidence to do it on my own, didn’t feel the need and for a long time, didn't even think that that might be an option.
What I did feel – was restlessness. Every time I would enthusiastically start a new “project” – getting things running, driving revenue and building out offices in overseas countries for my employer – and then I’d end up disagreeing with the path chosen by the company, or developments done (or mostly not done) and I would leave, feeling rather disappointed that they simply didn’t seem to see that they were on a path to nowhere. Not simply in my eyes, I was often proved right in the years to come. So I’d move along and find some new project and do the whole thing again. Until I grew up. Meaning I had to get awfully close to 40 before I considered myself at that stage! :-)
And then I suddenly, literally almost overnight, realized that if I could do all that for someone else, it might be a good thing to not have to deal with someone else’s decisions but instead take my own.

The funny thing was that whilst it may have taken me years to reach that “enlightenment”, it took me all of 10 days to make the switch. It felt as if the wheels turning my life’s path, were all clicking into place within minutes from the time that I consciously set myself the goal to start my own business. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the necessary paperwork – it probably would only have taken 10 minutes instead of 10 days! I met the right people who became my loyal partners even till today, got the right clients, got my goals aligned and simply got started. And that was that.
Don’t ever let your thoughts lead you away from taking that simple first step – which is taking the decision that this is what you need to do. I am convinced that you will experience the same unbelievable feeling of being absolutely right about what you are setting out to do. Once you have taken that first step - the others will follow. For me, my second one was buying a Mac instead of the Windows laptops I had always been forced to work on by company policies...one of those tiny symbols of freedom and setting my own rules that make me happy even today (and I still work on Apple computers).
And ofcourse, apart from everything else, now that you have gotten this far and you joined E.Factor, which means you already know you want to think about entrepreneurship, the beauty is that you have us to help you make it a success.
Go for it!



 

2 Comments

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• Ton de Graaf | Jun 21, 2009 04:26 PM

  Great blog Marion! Didn't we all start this way at some point? As I read your blog those same feelings come back to me. Haven't regretted it for even a split second.
  
  Life is good.
  
  Best wishes,
  Ton de Graaf
  www.youcoachnow.com

• Erik Lydecker | Jul 31, 2009 04:41 PM

  Am I impulsive? No. I'm critical, analytical and a sceptic by nature. I even have comments on Apple and Bang & Olufsen designs =)
  
  I have the perfect business idea. Can I say perfect? What is perfect in this sense? Do I believe in my product, so much that I would my self use it everyday and pay for it too? Yes. Do I belive that others would love it, embrace it and never leave it? Yes I do. Why start a business, spend hundreds of hours working when you don't believe in the customer need and demand? Is belief the same as the belief in God, when we talk business? No. It's based on analysis, facts and calculations. And some intuition. Or should I say logical reasoning?
  
  But where is the help? I will become a premium member in the coming days because I really want to start a business today, not tomorrow. I have a great well-paying job, a management position, in an international company with more than 1 million customers. But my mind is killing me! I'm an entrepreneur, I will never be satisfied with job positions, no matter how much they pay me. My wife think I'm crazy =)
  
  Could I say please help me now?
  
  Sincerely yours,
  Erik Lydecker

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