Whenever I hear speakers and pundits and bloggers in the startup space and bootstrapped startups, they always seem so upbeat and confident and optimistic. I see they’re always smiling, they’re killing it. The message is: you always have to be out there, communicating, contacting, emailing, reaching out, making contacts, going to conferences, marketing and sales.
And I feel so worthless. I feel that it’s a mile-high insurmountable mountain. How can I see myself there? How can I be so optimistic and upbeat? Just like they wanted me to be in school? Just like how the employer wants you to be in order to be a great team worker? Everybody working together, buddies?
I am the utterly pissed, utterly pessimistic entrepreneur.
Unhappy, unsmiling, unsocial, scowling, head buried in cell phone Asperger entrepreneur.
I am the grumpy ass entrepreneur.
Having said that, all the above just means that I am going to have to be really good at what I’m doing. I have to read all of the advice given out by wonderful persons online. I’m going to have to cross all the t’s and dot all the I’s. I’m going to have to niche down. I’m going to have to research the heck out of my niche and my audience. I’ll have to collect data and analyze it. I’m going down to put in reasonable payment options. I’m going to have to consult with a lawyer and an accountant. The product and it’s ancillaries have to be well developed and bug free. It has to be a product that I can build and maintain alone, which means no grandiose plans.
If I do all that properly I will succeed. If I have some failure on the way I will try and try again. I will learn from my mistakes, wipe a tear and keep on going. I will make my first dollar online and then I will move to a thousand dollars online. From there to thousands of dollars monthly. I will make more money than my day job.