Full Speed Ahead To Somewhere
Last week I was a guest on a radio show featuring female entrepreneurs. The hour-long conversation had me reliving those stress-filled days (and nights) when I first started my business. It reminded me that the nice part about being young is that you know everything and advice is something you politely tolerate and quickly discard.
My business plan was an orange wire-o journal filled with horoscopes (all predicting wild success), newspaper articles, scribbled ideas, a hit list of prospects, photos of people I aspired to be, and inspirational quotes to keep me pumped.
How hard could it be…?
My start-up financing was a loan from my father’s life insurance policy. I was on the Family Plan which meant I had to pay him back every cent, with interest. Those funds faded fast, along with any notion that passion alone guaranteed income. And when I began writing proposals, I realized how difficult it was to cost out a project.
At the time I was a “sole proprietor” so putting a price on my services was very subjective. I was in essence putting a value on my own worth. Eventually the marketplace has a way of solving that problem for you but it took me a few years to get it just right.
Sigmund Freud said, “If youth knew; if age could.”
When asked by the interviewer what I would do differently 32 years after starting my business, I said I would have waited until I had a year’s salary banked. She cut me off at the knees.
“Entrepreneurs don’t wait,” she said. “They just do it!”
She was right, of course.
Back then, I left a pension on the table because I couldn’t wait just six more months to become vested. My father begged me to stick it out. But I knew better.
And why would I ever need a pension anyway…?
