Why saying goodbye to my startup says more about growth than failure
There are moments in life that not only change your professional path, but also your personal one. I ‘ m currently at a point where I’m going to wind up my own start-up, that I have put my heart and soul into building up over seven years. Saying goodbye feels like losing a part of me, but I know: It is a necessary step in order to grow – as a person and even more so as an entrepreneur.
Letting go is never easy, especially with projects that you have put so much energy into. But I have learnt valuable lessons, of which I would like to share this one first. Because perhaps at some point you will also be faced with the question, how to say goodbye to something, that is close to your heart – be it an idea, a project or a professional identity.
The turning point: Warren Buffett’s sage advice and the realisation of why I needed to rethink my relationship with money
Over the last few years, I have read Alice Schroeder’ s great book book by Alice Schroeder ” Life is like a snowball”, THE biography of the legendary investor Warren Buffett from Omaha, Nebraska.
A sentence from this book has stuck with me over the last few weeks and never let go of me. It read: ” Never lose money”
What sounds trivial and could give the impression that this is clear anyway, is the deeply rooted attitude of a person who has a very special relationship with money.
There are very different ways of thinking about money , to ” feel” money and ultimately to deal with it and Buffett has moulded his approach into an art, as only great artists usually do.
For years, I was trapped in the idea, that entrepreneurial commitment was automatically associated with constant risk and the temporary loss of money. I kept investing my own capital in my company in my company and hoped for a breakthrough.
But looking back at my last start-up attempts showed me a bitter truth: I had invested a lot, but the results fell well short of my expectations.
Instead of a profitable business , I had created a creature, that only ever used the money. The nagging feeling that I wasn’t really getting anything back for my work apart from experience, made me doubt my approach.
How the Smart Business Concept approach has changed my perspective on being an entrepreneur
After I realised Buffett’s principle that money is a valuable resource, that the less of it you have, the more wisely you have to use it, I was able to pull the ripcord. Instead of continuing to tinker with my large, far too complex project, I decided to pursue the “Smart Business Concept” approach.
This approach encourages us to think small and simple. Instead of immediately going all out, it is about, startwith a clear focus and realisable goals.
The ” Smart Business Concept” approach aims to combine innovation and simplicity.
The basic idea behind the Smart Business Concept is to work according to a proven and extremely clever method, instead of reinventing the wheel over and over again.
It’ s not about creating the biggest project, but to develop a small but effective business model, that can be realised quickly and efficiently – without investing an unnecessary amount of capital.
In practice , this means that I am now focussing on a simple, but sustainable business idea. I’ll let you hear from me again soon… 😉
Carsten
