Once upon a time, there was an over-enthusiastic startup founder who had a massive amount of fuel of burning passion and desire to do something big. The fire was so intense that the “individual” approached multiple investors with few showing interests but yet not failing to give up.
Every day, the startup founder would listen to “Whatever it takes” by Imagine Dragons or “Remember the name” by Fort Minor, both of which are extremely motivational music while trying to get on board and get rejected by “possible” employees left and right.
Despite making a fool of himself/herself with investors and other people, when they asked for the business model or in other words “ how will you make money? The competition is massive”, everything else was just perfect!
Then after a few years, that startup lost more money than it would ever make.
That hilarious startup founder was me.
During my years in university, I was a bored but very enthusiastic individual. Without having any knowledge about mobile apps (or how the world works), I jumped into planning the launch of the most perfect mobile app the industry had ever known.
Also Read: Why trust is the biggest barrier to entrepreneurship and innovation
A recipe for the perfect disaster, some would say. Yet I would not trade the experience for a million dollars.
Here are the 3 things I learnt from my failure that I would like to share with every aspiring entrepreneur.
1. Anger management
Anger has many forms. It is not limited to an angry face or a series of rants. It can be frustration; it can be silence or it can be a sharp mouth; it can be anything.
As an entrepreneur, it is incredibly important to remain calm, no matter how tough the circumstances are. Anger only distorts perception and moves focus away from the bigger picture.
If you are someone who is constantly angry and gets easily frustrated, do not be an entrepreneur.
Really, being a successful entrepreneur requires tremendous patience and calmness.
Because of lack of anger management, I managed to lose the trust of the few people who decided to join me. I was quick to jump into conclusions and lose the trust of the people who were loyal to the idea.
2. Lack of knowledge
If you want to start a mobile app company, know everything about mobile apps. If you don’t think that you know enough, then get a co-founder who does. This rule applies to all fields.
I had little knowledge about apps. Therefore, when developers faced problems, I would not know how to advise them or suggest them solutions –which made me look like a fool. The mobile app took longer than ever to build.
If you do not know the ins-and-outs of the business you are trying to get into, never do it simply for the money or any other reason that you may have. It will only end badly. If you do not believe me, read about Facebook. If the guys only knew how to code and programme, they could have done it themselves without the help of Mark Zuckerberg. They lacked the knowledge and it clearly did not end well for them.
Some will say, “No, you simply need to learn how to judge people right. You don’t need to know everything. Hire smart people.”
To them, I would say, “If I had enough money, yes, I would hire the right people. But you do not have this privilege when you are starting from scratch.”
3. Having a good business model
My business model was “ads”, that’s all the mind of a 19-year-old could contemplate at that time.
Some would say that it was because due to the influence of media and the digital age, and I’m not going to argue about it.
Also Read: New Antler-NUS initiative to nurture deeptech talents, to invest in 30 startups annually
But it is important to know how you will generate cash and how much money you will spend on your business. It is a simple point but its really about organising and good money management. If you do not have a good business model, you will end up like me, or even worse.
Conclusion
Eventually, I decided that I did not have the right self-awareness to become an entrepreneur. I decided to grow emotionally and spiritually before I began my next quest.
Personal development is very important for founders, as some say that founders are the new generation of “kings/queens waiting to expand their empire.”
–
Image Credit: Element5 Digital on Unsplash
This post was first published on November 10, 2019
The post 3 crucial startup lessons learnt from a startup failure while still at university appeared first on e27.