Aaron Speaks!

Learned wisdom on the path of entrepreneurship

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Getting Started

Nov 17

Posted by Aaron in Philosophy, history | No Comments

Begin with the end in mind.

Cliche vacation scene

(cliche ideal vacation image)

Once I had quit my job, I was faced with a massive task in front of me – building and creating a business, with only the basic framework of an idea of what I wanted that business to look like.  At least I knew what I wanted my life to look like.  Surprisingly, knowing this is probably the most important part of beginning a business.  

Why is knowing that so important, you might ask?  Here’s why: the kind of lifestyle you want will determine the business choices you make. If you make decisions without regards to the endgame, you may end up with something that does not facilitate the kind of life you desire.  You may in fact, end up with the opposite, and find yourself dealing with a business monstrosity that monopolizes all of your time. Imagine, if you will, creating a business in which you sell wodgets (a distant relative of the widget) and the wodget is both labor and time intensive to make.  At the outset, it is likely you will need to make the wodgets yourself.  You may be able to sell each one for a high dollar value, but your revenue will always be linked to your efforts.  You have to work more to make more, with revenue directly tied to the number of wodgets you can make. Of course you want more money, and you make the decision to hire employees to make the wodgets for you.  But now your time is consumed with payroll, managing the employees, dealing with taxes, etc.  This does not seem fun to me. For this same reason I would not become a consultant as a primary business.  As a consultant, I would be constrained by the hours I could work (non-scalable), and what I want to avoid is any business where you have to work more to make more.

I want to work less to make more.

Not because I’m a lazy person (well I certainly hope not…) but I want to work less so that I have more time to do the activities I enjoy and be creative.

Knowing that, and beginning with the end in mind, what does my business look like?  That is an excellent question.  So far I know what I want my business not to look like; figuring out the rest is a more difficult proposition.

I’ll keep you updated.

The Beginning

Nov 13

Posted by Aaron in history | No Comments

“A beginning is a very delicate time…”

It occurred to me that I am going about this all wrong.  (It tends to be a common circumstance for me.)  This is supposed to be an chronicling of me trying to start my own business.  Except I started this blog 2 months into the process, which skipped some pretty significant details – such as quitting my job, moving out of my apartment and back into a bedroom at my parent’s place, and losing my company car, so that I now have to ride around on my motorcycle everywhere.  (The motorcycle part is actually pretty nice except when it rains.  Getting soaked really sucks, so I wear a full waterproof suit, and the suit works great except for one issue.  It leaks in the crotch area.  So when I take it off I’m nice and dry – I just look like I peed in my pants.)

This is what my pants DON'T look like

This is what my pants DON'T look like

So I think it’s appropriate to say most people would think my life has changed appreciably.  But, surprisingly, I don’t feel that way.  It’s amazing how quickly humans can get used to a new situation, internalize and accept a new reality.  What doesn’t happen as quickly, however, is figuring out how to best live that reality.  Because, really, I am at the beginning of all of this.

The truth is I made a decision to quit my job knowing only that I wanted to do my best to figure out if I could make it work.  I just could not see my life going in the direction it was headed and be satisfied with that.  I’ll tell you a little story, just for fun…

More than seven years ago, about two months into his first post-college job, a young man named Aaron sat, enjoying one of the best parts of his work day.  What was that, you might ask?  Well, you see, it was his 30 minute lunch break, that treat of so many salarymen around the globe.  While enjoying the succulent taste of his instant soup, Aaron had a terrible thought.  ”This is it, isn’t it?”  He pondered.  ”Every day I work, and my only reprieve is a small vacation each year.  There is no summer vacation, no winter break, no finals to prepare for, no excitement from a new semester and new subject matter.”  And upon having this thought, Aaron’s heart was filled with dread.  But, having been taught from a young age that this was the natural course of life, Aaron resigned himself to his fate.  And for seven more years, Aaron toiled for companies he cared little about, making and selling products that brought him no joy.

So it took me seven years to realize that I only have one life.  You do to, by the way.  If what you are doing doesn’t bring you joy, and doesn’t inspire you, realize that you do have the power to change it.  Like it has for me, your life may change, and you may have to start at a new beginning, and figure things out.  But there is so much possibility in that, and in life.  Realizing that I have the power to change, even as lost as I may feel in trying to figure this new reality out, makes me want to share that inspiration with everyone.

I hope you love what you do, whether you are just beginning, or have things well worked out.