By There are 7 startup lessons I learned from the establishment of my company Offline Thinker. Our idea was simple; to create an open online publishing platform for everyone and everything. On the journey, we enjoyed ourselves a lot. The process from crafting an idea into the business itself was self-motivating. With learnings came lessons. Today I will be sharing Top 7 lessons I learned on and off the journey of Offline Thinker.
1 Prioritize Work, Set Aside Fun For Later.
There were times when I was working and my friends were busy playing games. I was learning how to design and write business plans as my friends were chilling with online movies and video calls.
It was frustrating to see myself working till mid-night when everyone at home was asleep.
But Dale Carnegie’s few words always pushed me to work harder. It said, “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
That’s why I left no stone untouched when it came to building the base of my company that was to create its framework and the system.
I prioritized my work first then later I enjoyed it.
2 It’s Easy to Say, But Difficult to Do What’s Said
As I made the framework of what Offline Thinker was going to be, I came to meet Atul, our founding member. Further, we had a long conversation on how our company was going to give a better platform for creative writers and curious readers.
We planned day and night for a week. We wrote down our 5-year plans and goals on paper.
It looked like an incredible plan. We felt as if we were already at a good level as per our idea.
But the time for its execution. This is where we failed. We did start but soon realized that saying is one thing and doing what we say is even complex.
Despite the early failure, we tried.
As said, ‘When there is a will, there is a way’, we found our ways to change our written plans into real actions.
It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t that difficult either.
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Startup Lessons: Learning Never Ends
As we started our brand new startup company, we felt like we knew everything. We felt like the boss.
But as we delved into our business plan, problems hit our face. We realized what we know is nothing in comparison to others who know something.
That’s when real learning outside of the coursebook started. We learned making mistakes, experiment with new ideas, and looking at our competitors.
From learning the scratch of registering a company to unlearning unwanted learning, we learned a lot.
I personally learned many things including the power of teamwork, building relationships with human resources, the art of failing and rising, the value of money, and the essence of goodwill and passion.
If you have a startup company as well, start learning more than what you think is enough.
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Startup Lessons: Work as a Team or Don’t Work
The idea of Offline Thinker started with a tea discussion.
We were 2 friends with 2 cups of tea. Out of some random topic, I happened to share the idea with him.
Fortunately, he got excited about it. And we started working on the idea as a team. From that day till now, we are always there, as a team, to help grow each other and the company.
Now, from being a team of 2 to 8 team members, and with involuntary online writers we are working every day to make our vision a real success.
Entrepreneurs learn this skill of working as a team. It will give you a lifetime benefit.
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Good Vision with positive vibes is a must
Our vision is clear, to create a valuable writing platform for an amateur to professional writers. We haven’t strived our best version yet but the growth is upscaling day by day.
What’s important is some positive vibes along with a good vision. And luckily, we have them both.
We are filled with literary writings send by writers from around Nepal and beyond. Those words add positivity to work and inspire us to create more value for our readers and writers.
The same strategy works for all the start-ups. A good vision with positive vibes is a must.
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Try, Fail, and Re-try with a new idea
‘You are failing, means you are trying.’ My uncle used to says this to me. If one is not trying, one shall never fail.
Starting a start-up company means nobody is there to give you a success formula. You have to try new things, experiment with what works and whatnot. You have to accept failure and have to stand again and re-try.
We did the same and we are still following the same formula: try-fail-retry.
Oh! Please don’t stop yourself from trying because someone else said not to try. Give your best, and be open to new ideas. Because that’s the beauty of startup business.
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Startup Lessons: A startup is Not a Joke
Hey fellows! The biggest startup lesson I learned is that ‘STARTUP IS NOT A JOKE’.
The struggle is real. You run out of money, the idea doesn’t work well, the vision is unclear, teammates get distracted and you have to work responsibly every moment. Handling everything is not easy.
Starting a startup because someone motivated you, will give pain in your ass. So, don’t start if you aren’t ready to get on the battlefield of startups.
The reason most startups fail is also that they think establishing a startup company is easy. And they end up getting disappointed.
Ask me or any other startup owners about the sleepless nights and stressful days handling the business problems they were uncertain about the problem.
Ask them how much willpower it takes to start a company of your own. Read stories about choosing a 10-5- day job to stay away from startup company’s responsibility.
It’s not a joke to start a business. It’s not a joke. There won’t be running back if you get started. So better think before you start out of excitement and foolishness.
Only if you have that passion, willpower, or self-belief that it will work and you will work no matter what, think of starting a startup. Else, choose an easy life.
Do you dare to start your own company? If you will, I will be ready to listen to your 7 startup lessons.
Next up: 5 mistakes Startups Make
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