My Entrepreneurial Journey - Episode 1

Today I am celebrating that I have finally quit my job and decided to start my own business. I'll try to document my journey and my thoughts on that topic for anyone who is interested. I don't know if it will be successful or fail, but at least you will then know one way how not to do it. Let me start by telling my personal story that led me to this point.

I don't want to bore you too much with my history, just a very brief overview: My father was an entrepreneur since I can think, and I guess, of course that influenced me a lot. I got old computers from his office at a young age, and he taught me a lot about business. With my first new own computer I started learning to build websites and programming PHP. I had a pretty well running website in the early 2000s and at that point I started dreaming about having my own business one day. Then puberty hit and other things got more important for a while 😅. Later I got a job at a young startup company with just a handful of employees at that time. I chose the path of becoming a self-taught Web Developer and the company I worked at did very well over the years. Recently over 200 people are working there.

Why did I quit now?

Actually I never lost my dream of having my own business, and I also thought about quitting from time to time. But at the same time it was a very exciting journey at that company and there were new challenges every once in a while. Looking back maybe I should have taken this step a little earlier, but I have to admit it's not that easy after such a long time (almost 14 years).

And also, you know, especially when taking that step in your 30s (or even later), there are many common doubts holding you back, like: What if I fail and in the end just lose money? Why risk my secure and well paid job? And so on.

Don't forget about the best and the average case scenarios

I believe the thought that finally lead me to this decision was: What can or will I most probably lose/miss by NOT trying? So, not only seeing the risks and worst case scenarios but also compare it to the opportunities and chances.

Most people spend a lot of time thinking about the worst case scenario. But you shouldn't forget that by deciding against something you'll automatically miss all the opportunities it might hold for you.

I thought: Well yes, while trying I could potentially burn my savings and in the end still fail. I'll then have to go back to work as an employee. But still I'll now have at least one or two years when I can build what I really want to build myself and how I want to build it. And in the end I guess I'll still have learned a lot of things that can bring me further in my career. And I hope as a Developer I also won't have a big problem finding a good job in the near future.

So actually with that in mind you might not have that much to lose as you may think the first moment! And on the other hand what you can potentially lose by not taking the risk is of course huge. The huge success is pretty rare, but I think even having a successful business over a longer period can be very fulfilling.

At least I can definitely tell you, it feels pretty exciting at the moment, and I am really looking forward to work on my own product! 🙂