Retrospect – A journey of thousand days.
This is a post about my own retrospect of the last thousand days and how not to fail in the start-up.
On 1st November 2019, just after finishing my contract with Opus Energy, I was in a dilemma about what to do next. It was an exciting time, and I was curious, proud, and motivated. I was thinking about how much risk I should take for being venturous. It was my first attempt to be an entrepreneur. And I am still proud of that moment when I decided to go with my gut fillings. I decided to give myself a thousand days to succeed on that day. I promised myself that if I were not successful by then, I would put it to rest and return to the contracting world. My measurement for success was simple, the same earnings I earned as a contractor. And my journey began.
Moving fast forward to date, in the past three years, I have worked tirelessly for countless hours and tried to build my business which matches my previous earnings. I worked with many people and tried to hire, train, mentor, and motivate around twenty-five young people through the kickstart scheme. Participated in Leicester Accelerator Start-up, countless networking events, met new people, developed more than 25 projects worth £250k and many sleepless nights. I may have made so many mistakes and regrets in a few frustrating times.
After all that, how much did I gain? Not much, and not as expected. I should admit that I want to keep my promise. Today is the last day of my thousandth, and I am retrospecting it, looking into the mirror and asking myself, it’s time to keep your promise and put your own ego to the bay. And be back to your original self. Do what you are meant to do. And start to bring food to the table and be a breadwinner.
Today I have decided to go back to contracting and helping my family to bring the joyous life they deserve. I want to ensure that nothing I have learned in the past three years is wasted. I want to share my experience and knowledge with the whole world.
So as a scrum ritual, I would like to write a retrospective.
What went well?
Everything. Shiny. Right!
New business, concepts, learning, validating, leading people, teaching and motivation. So many good things. Help from others, leadership, mentorship. Building good relationships with nice people. Sense of achievement for successfully deploying projects, going live and celebrating a few good moments. Sense of that makes still everything worthy. Everything was good and positive initially, but later, I realised it was not what I thought. And things were never easy, and I think they never will be.
Well, So
What didn’t go so well?
In my humble opinion doing business, making new customers, juggling many roles at once, not keeping pace with backlogs and to-dos, not realising self-limitation, burning the hell out, emotional, physical, social detachment, self-deprivation and ignoring mental health, stress, anxiety, fatigue and frustration. High expectations, planning and failure to execute plans. Recovering from debts. Failed to Plan and Failed to take drastic actions, actions with results and result-oriented planning.
Failed to venture with co-founders, pitch to investors, raise capital, putting bootstrap everything and not able to generate enough traction and revenues. It killed me inside out. I was not able to stop earlier than I should have. But hey-ho, it was gentlemen promised, so I am looking head high today. And I can look into my eyes while standing in front of the mirror. And can tell me, “Ravi, It’s time now.”
What have I learned?
I have learned many new things and understand my self-resilience, beliefs, and financial awareness. I learned how not to do business, understand business and consumers, and not to spend your money and time. When to stop and reset, be real and honest with yourself; it is okay not to be okay. And reset your expectations and bounce back with your abilities.
What still puzzles me?
Although so many sleepless nights, COVID-19, Ukraine War, inflation and deep recession. I am not sure I am still able to understand what went so many things wrong. Well. I am not blaming myself or anybody. Done is done. You can not reverse it. And no need to regret anything. Move ON.
Right. So, in summary.
I can conclude the following.
- It is okay to try and fail than not to try at all.
- It is learning and standing back from it.
- Take responsibilities. Be honest with yourself.
- You must start getting paid customers first, then figure out everything else.
- Don’t just do something you love; do it as if it is your last thing.
- Keep your eye on finances and never put your family at risk.
- Take risks but not too many of them. Be wise.
- It is okay to start again and do it again.
- Experience is key; networking is valuable, but time is precious; spend it wisely.
- Never afraid to ask for help.
Now, if you are in my network and do you think I should deserve a better Job or my skills can be better appreciated somewhere? I would appreciate it if you could share this with your network. Alternatively, I would like to hear back from you. You can contact me here.
Again Thank you for your help, support and love.
Until next time.
Sincerely,
RL
