FAILURE IS THE START
The start of something great, that is. But before I tell you my story, consider this for a moment: Are you a rebel? Do you think big and aim high? Is your main goal to challenge the status quo? If the answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes, then this is a story for you. The story of how I became an entrepreneur.
When I was 7 years old I immediately knew how my life was going to turn out if I followed in my family’s footsteps. My dad was a cattle rancher just like his dad before him. So were my cousins, uncles…you get the picture. It’s what people in the industry call “The Family Business.” While I loved the outdoors, I also had a passion for learning how things worked; searching for the nuts and bolts behind them. With this in mind, I knew early on I would be forging my own path.
Instead of agricultural engineering, I studied computer science. Instead of limiting my efforts to one country (Colombia), I decided to explore the world.
It was around my university years that I started my very first company, building custom computers, but it didn’t work out because I didn’t understand the needs of my market. My second venture focused on helping farmers trace and track their goods through technology. That also fizzled, because I relied on third parties with different interests. I later opened a consulting software development firm where I promptly lost money, because of bad legal advice. My fourth company was in GPS navigation, which I sold for a profit.
My fifth and most rewarding endeavor is what you see before you — Disruptica — a tech startup studio that invests in people’s ideas and by far the best project I’ve ever worked on. It’s exciting to collaborate with different clients, companies, and individuals that want to shake things up and bring great ideas to life. It has actually been so inspiring that it ignited the spark for a new social enterprise, a technology education platform teaching Hispanics how to code. This project is growing every day, and you’ll definitely hear more about it in the future. Until then, let’s focus on entrepreneurship!
What have I learned from all of these experiences? Well, you have to be stubborn. Persevere and listen to your gut because no matter what, you can make it. I’ve also learned that you have to understand the market; don’t allow anyone to control your business; always get the best legal and accounting advisors out there to assist you; work with and pay for only the best; always keep an ear out, because good ideas can come from the last person you’d expect; and, finally, luck should only account for one percent of your efforts.
From this process, I came up with the 80/20 rule. Succeed 80 percent of the time, and fail 20 percent of the time. If you win too much, you can’t handle the inevitable losses. If you lose too much, you’ll never win. This balance keeps your ego in check while maximizing the probabilities of long-term success.
Furthermore, here are three major components you need to start your own business:
- Mentoring. Dear entrepreneur, it really doesn’t matter how experienced you are, you actually know very little about this vast, complex world. I’m not trying to be rude, but let’s be real, we don’t have all the answers. Having a mentor is extremely helpful, since they can guide you on how to make and build upon a profitable idea.
- Funds. Innovators can have thousands of ideas, but building a product is quite another challenge. You need a team working both for you and with you, and that requires capital. Work only with the best. It’s all about the quality after all.
- Marketing. You’ve got the mentoring, the funds, the team, and you built an awesome product. Time to go to the market, right? Well, not just yet. Sending your product out there requires its own strategy because if you don’t know how, where and when to sell it, your project will fail. Do your homework! Don’t neglect the marketing.
This is my success-failure compilation. I’ve used all this knowledge to create Disruptica, a startup that creates other startups in technology. We work with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, rebels who need to go from an idea to a real and marketable product with speed and efficiency.
There are those who succeeded on the first try, but that’s not my story. This is my story. A tale about going through many pitfalls, but also learning from my mistakes and starting over.
Now it’s your turn. Share your story with us now on Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram using #DisruptiveStory. The most inspiring stories will be featured on our network.
Originally Posted on https://www.disruptica.com/blog/post/failure-is-the-start
