Is Starting A Company The Right Thing For You?
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Starting your own company isn't right for everyone. It has nothing to do with skill-level, and has everything to do with personality and your current situation.
Based on his experience starting Carson Systems, a small web-based company. here is a list of personality traits you might need:
- Self motivation - No one is going to tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing. Whether your succeed or fail is pretty much up to you (and a bit of luck).
- Open to risk - There's no guarantee that your company will succeed. Would you be able to recover emotionally, if it fails?
- Strong work ethic - There are some periods where you'll be working 18 hour days.* Can you do it? Do you want to?
- Driven - When things go wrong, are you strong-willed enough to push on? You've got to be fanatical about what you're doing. If you don't believe in what your doing, why will customers?
- Organisation - You'll get busy really fast. I'd recommend picking up a copy of David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
- Humility - There are plenty of wise people out there who you can learn from. I freely admit that I don't know it all, which is why I read so many blogs (up to about 100 now). Free advice from wise people - what could be better?
Read the full excellent post at 37signals.com
Tags: small business, start-up