I'm a co-founder but not an entrepreneur

"I'm a co-founder," it still feels weird to say and when I do it's just to describe what I get up to when I’m not at my day job as an IT Business Analyst.

Maybe that’s the reason; the fact that this isn’t my day job yet or, more accurately, it doesn’t yet support my living. However, I’m not doing this for the money. I’ve been at this for over a year and I would have been long frustrated if that was my main goal, although, I do have my selfish reasons; I love chatting with our members, I love learning about their startups whether it’s just an idea or operational business. I love being a part of the process and helping them achieve their goal.

But, let’s rewind a just tad.

I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, a large reason why was that I had no idea what I wanted to do. At one point, I wanted to be a doctor because I was hooked on the sitcom Scrubs. Not a recommended means of figuring out what you want to do with your life... One thing I knew undoubtedly was that I wanted freedom. I want to live a life I'm too excited to sleep for and brimming with enthusiasm when I wake up. I wanted to buy whatever I desired at any given moment, regardless of the price. I want complete control of my life and its trajectory.

But as the years went on and life happened, I never happened upon an idea that I was passionate about, one where I could use all my skills and utilise all my strengths for. I mean I had ideas, for example, I had an idea for an app that avid walkers could use to tour around their areas. I gave up when I saw there was already an app for it on the Play Store (my abundance mindset hadn’t been adopted yet). Before I knew it I had completed my degree and was a graduate with not much else to do besides taking 1 to 3 hours to complete graduate job applications (no exaggeration, they are extremely long) and binging the philosophy crash course series on YouTube (where I acquired my passion for philosophy stems from). Soon after I would be inducted into the Business Analyst stream at FDM Group where I would meet my good friend and ever-inspiring co-founder, Felix.

Our love of business and technology meant our rapport was built seamlessly. It wasn’t until a year later in January 2020 where he would tell me about his idea and vision to democratise entrepreneurship to students. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down and I would go on to accept and become co-founder of IdeasLab. Looking back, I jumped at this opportunity but I couldn’t tell you why… I didn’t know anything about EdTech to justify accepting, I hadn’t been an entrepreneur, but to help and guide students on their entrepreneurship journey piqued my interest - it just made sense. On top of that, it was an adventure! I’ve been constantly learning and it has been an absolute pleasure working with my amazing team; it has been an extraordinary journey so far. My co-founders Daniel, Felix, and Shafiq constantly bring value to all areas of the business, in short, they’re inspiring and this is only echoed by the gratitude of those we help. Whatever downturn may come, that’s something no one can take away from us.

Of course, there have been many lessons since May 2020 however these four have been lessons where a weakness of mine needed to become a strength or lessons which have resonated with me the most:

Lesson one - plan, plan, and then plan some more

This took some getting used to, in fact, it’s something I’m still working through and refining. I disliked having a schedule and planning in my life, not so much following a schedule or having a goal and planning for it, but how restrictive it felt. It is not how I imagined my life being lived. However, I have to have one now, for almost everything. I have too many things I care about and I’m responsible for that if I don’t schedule my week and my day effectively my tasks suffer in quality and I let myself, and sometimes others down. Scheduling my days and weeks is something I only consistently started in late May and I had to start small. There was still resistance in my mind to the idea of planning that I had to get over. So I began by reviewing my days, at the end of every day I spend about 15 - 20 minutes pausing and reflecting on the day and I ask myself these four questions: what bad habits did I curb today? How am I better? Were my actions just? How can I improve? Next, I looked at the present, ‘what’s important to me?’. Here, I would look at where my current passions are, what responsibilities I have, what are my goals, and what are my values. Slowly, but surely, after breaking this down piece by piece I had a roadmap, a North Star I could head towards and be proactive instead of reactive.

Lesson two: Sweat the small stuff

I’ve always been a big picture type of guy, but this is an area which I had to strengthen even before IdeasLab for work in my previous role, as a Software Tester, my day-to-day was sweating the small stuff. It was not something I focused on beforehand but you soon realise the consequences can be dire if small tasks are left to fester and become larger problems. This comes in handy when building a community-based startup because every little thing matters. From the messages you write to members, clients, partners and other stakeholders, to recording what the team and I need to be focused on for the next deadline or milestone. Murphy’s law is an aphorism that comes to mind: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So I sweat the stuff.

Lesson three: Let go of what you can’t control

I know, easier said than done. But once practised, this only positively affected my relationships with my co-founders and has spanned to other areas of my life. You have to have faith that your team will deliver and be okay if they come up short (however, if it is a habit do address the issue). Thankfully, I have a team around me I can trust, but the voice in the back of my mind will still whisper doubts. You won’t be able to shut this off, but you can decide whether or not you listen to it and more importantly whether you will act rationally or irrationally to it. Once you let go of what you can’t control you do yourself the favour of releasing so much stress, anxiety and burden, also it gives you the opportunity to truly focus on your tasks. It is not your task to decide whether or not a prospective partner likes you or not, it’s theirs. It’s not your task whether the post you’ve just made will resonate with one or a hundred, it’s the task of those who come across it. All you can do is control the attempt.

Lesson four: Live to be humbled

The quote for this lesson comes from Mike Tyson, he used it in an interview and it’s stuck with me since. I view living to be humbled as another way to shed a layer of ignorance. It allows me to remove failure from the equation of life and instead focuses on becoming more attuned to reality. For instance, living this way has benefitted my current role as a Business Analyst. Instead of living with any preconceptions or assumptions, I ask questions; I let myself be vulnerable and sit comfortably with my ignorance. As the Oracle told Socrates when he asked who the smartest Greek was, the Oracle answered Socrates, because he was conscious that he was ignorant. It may be impressive to have all the answers but even more so to admit you don’t know and strive to learn.

Of course, there are many more lessons that I have learned from this past year. It’s been a rollercoaster for reasons I wouldn’t have expected, mais ce la vie. I guess looking back the reason I don’t feel like an entrepreneur just yet is because I haven’t taken the full plunge into the deep-end, but do I have to? This is a journey and I’m happy to take it day by day and enjoy the process, I’m still growing and learning so much from my career and being, at the very least, a part-time entrepreneur allows me to acquire new skills and enhance those that I have already. I know it’s taboo to introduce a new point in the conclusion but bear with me just a little longer. Over the last year, I’ve observed that we’re all entrepreneurs, whether or not we have a tangible business is irrelevant because your first business is you. How you market yourself (social media), how you close deals (interviews) and how you conduct yourself day-to-day (operations) are all important. So yes, I am an entrepreneur, of IdeasLab and myself. And you are an entrepreneur too.