"That's it, at almost 47 years old, my time has passed."
That's exactly what I thought until the end of 2019 about starting my own business. So, why did I ultimately decide to take the leap into entrepreneurship? The answer is ridiculously simple, and I will be very honest about it. I will also explain clearly why this might be important for you.
But let me first give you some background information about myself. My father was a teacher. For him, as a civil servant, one of the most important aspects of his career was "job security." In fact, he had an aversion to risk in everything he did. As a teacher, he knew exactly how to pass on his life philosophy to his children.
At least, that's what he thought...
Because the beauty of life is that everyone is different and people develop their own personality. The rebellious teenage years probably serve this purpose: to rid ourselves of certain fears or unwanted ideas we've accumulated, or rather, that have been hammered into our heads since childhood.
But I was only a moderate rebel. Taking risks was never my cup of tea. Like my father, I'm the cautious type. Although, compared to my father's level, I’m probably a daredevil!
Of course, there are families where taking risks is part of the DNA. There are also lineages that are so involved in entrepreneurship that their children are "fed" with the spirit of business as soon as they can speak.
We like to think that entrepreneurs are always brave individuals. People who, at some point in their lives, take significant risks to make their dreams come true. Yes, they exist... somewhere...
But there are also people like me, who just needed a helping hand to feel reassured when taking that first important step of starting a new business. Whether it’s a family member or someone you trust, having a guide by your side at that moment in your life can make the difference between "continuing to dream about a business" and "creating it."
For me, that helping hand was my best friend, who has owned and run a successful business for several years.
When my friend Gunther did think about starting DelVache, he had 2 options:
1. Create a new division in his existing company and put some of his employees on it. Créer une nouvelle division dans son entreprise existante et y affecter certains de ses employés.
2. Start from scratch and invite some of his friends to join him on this new adventure.
Luckily for me, Gunther likes to share joy, experiences and success. So, on a cold December day, he asked me if I was interested to join the ride.
And so the story started.
Passed this difficult initial decision making, I can tell you that I feel like a fish in the water now. I love everything about being an entrepreneur and I am working very hard to make it a succes.
Although I would never have started without a little help, now I feel that I am on fire.
Some people probably think that you should have the guts to start something on your own to make it afterwards. As some sort of an initial test for the difficulties that will come to you. But I am sure that many great entrepreneurs also needed a little push when it was their first time.
And unfortunately, that also means that lots of capable people never had the chance to develop their own company.
Only because nobody helped them to cross the first hurdle.
.
If you are still with me in this article, I would like to take this opportunity to make the following requests:
- Are you an entrepreneur and did you, one day, also start your company because someone helped you? Then maybe it's a good time to send this person a big thank you. Do you sometimes wonder how different your life would be if you did not get that help?
If you are already an entrepreneur and you want to start another business, then perhaps it's a good idea to look around you and ask yourself the question: "would it not be more fun and rewarding to share this adventure with a person I trust and that I think could be interested to become an entrepreneur?
Oh, and for the get-a-friend-onboard-skeptics out there, you are right also. We can tell from experience.
I was not the only one to jump on the happy-friends-startup-train. Two other long time buddies joined the ride, until recently. But they decided after more than one year that it was not something they wanted to continue to do.
Just to make clear that crossing the first hurdle is not a guarantee that you will like what you see past it...