First published: 2019-12-25

How I Became an Entrepreneur

Or why it pays to get drunk with your boss.

If there is one thing that graduating from Poland's top computer science university has taught me, it's that if someone was smart enough to discover something, I'm at the very least capable of understanding it.

And if there is one thing that working for start-ups has taught me, it's that their founders did not possess supernatural skills. Like everyone, they made mistakes. They ocasionally said silly things and didn't, in fact, know what they were doing. They were regular humans, with regular human limitations. Yet here we were - they were running successful start-ups and I was trading my time for money, working for their success.

Growing up in post-socialist Poland an entrepreneur was a rare sight, the stuff of legend. The realisation that they're regular human beings didn't come to me immediately. I had to learn what makes them tick on my own.

A boys' night out in London

One of the start-ups I worked for had a remote team scattered across Europe. One week we all flew to London to get to know each other better and on Wednesday we went out for drinks...

Around 3:00 in the morning, after a lot of walking and a lot of drinking it was just me and the company founder in a cocktail bar. It's when he shared his secret with me.

He told me that he comes from a business family. His father always pushed him to start a company and constantly made him study. He said that he didn't really want to run a company, he didn't enjoy reading business books and he was pressured into doing it.

That confession flipped a switch in my brain. This guy never even wanted to run a company, yet here he was, doing it! In my mind entrepreneurship stopped being a privilege reserved for the chosen few and became a career like any other. This thought turned into an obsession. I needed to know: what does it take? And how can I do it?

I started analyzing the businessmen I knew and read about the ones that I didn't. The breakthrough realisation began to materialize: what makes them stand out is their education and persistence. Two characteristics that are within my reach.

The pull kept growing

Ever since I remember I loved to build things. First it was Legos, then complex computer systems. Being a computer engineer seemed like the logical career choice - I'll be building things and getting paid handsomely for it. But for some reason I couldn't keep a job for longer than a year. Each time I'd start full of enthusiasm. I'd learn new technologies, build new things. And each time as time passed my annoyance with my boss, coworkers and the technologies we used kept growing. Then I'd switch jobs naively hoping this time it will be different repeating the cycle over and over.

But with each new job I grew older and wiser. Gradually I started to see that there was nothing wrong with my bosses, my coworkers or the technologies. What got to me was the feeling that the direction of my work is out of my control, that I'm just following orders. As a professional I was never a maker. I was a resource and it was the company founders that hired me who were the real makers.

I was fulfilling dreams, just not my own...

The big decision

When my frustration with my last job took its usual course I decided that this time I wont repeat the cycle. I quit and plunged head first into entrepreneurship.

I had no product idea, and no business plan. Because of that my friends called my decision foolish, hasty and irresponsible. I did however have a methodology of acquiring new skills that has served me well in the past.

I started by reading books on entrepreneurship. Some were enlightening. Some were a waste of time. I took a month-long trip around Europe. After a few weeks of all that I felt that I've had enough theory and journeys of self-discovery. It was time to get to work.

My first few ideas were a flop. I made every beginner mistake possible, such as trying to sell to restaurants (they are famous for not spending money on software). In fact, if I think back about my journey, nearly everything I did was a mistake. Which, as it turns out, is to be expected. But as long as I was learning and moving forward I was fine with failing. You're supposed to make mistakes. You're supposed to learn what works and what doesn't. You're supposed to iterate.

Getting drunk with my boss that night in London changed my life.

As a salaryman I got a nice predictable paycheck for doing technical work that I mostly enjoyed. I was worry free, had plenty of vacation days and was pampered by the IT job market. But it didn't feel right.

As an entrepreneur I constantly have a feeling that I don't know what I'm doing or what the future holds. I'm stressed, angry, depressed, and have no time off. And for the first time I truly feel alive.

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