Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Andy Sack
I had coffee with a 23 year old aspiring entrepreneur today. He’s had one job post college — as an investment banker for a year. He found the job “soul sucking”. One of the most valuable lessons he learned while working is that he doesn’t want to be an investment banker. He told me his 5 year goal is to do something entrepreneurial.
With the goal of entrepreneurship in mind, my advice to the person I had coffee with ….and to my 20 year old self is as follows:
- Go for it – If you have an idea….then start a business. Doesn’t matter if the business is online or offline. Your goal for your first business should be to create enough financial success so that you can control your life and be financially independent. No matter what the business is : choose your market carefully and make sure you think it might be something you love to do for a long time. Make sure it’s a high margin business. Make sure it’s a business you can be amongst the best. There’s no better education than just doing. And don’t worry at all about failure — your first company is all about learning and making mistakes so that you don’t fuck up later. Highly unlikely you’re building the next Facebook so go for it.
- Get drunk and befriend rockstar developers – If you want to start a high tech business, you’ll need the help of a rockstar technical co-founder. That special co-founder can be hard to find if you don’t already have them identified. If you are an aspiring technology entrepreneur and you’re not a developer, get a job at a big company that allows you to work with lots of rock star developers. Buy those developers beer. Get drunk with the developers. Hang out with them. In a few years you may be in a position to leave together.
- Immerse yourself in markets and ideas – If you don’t have an idea, go ask 5 successful entrepreneurs who are working (don’t go after the semi retired ones) what market and businesses are interesting. The working entrepreneurs will have lots of ideas.
- Get a job – If you still don’t have an idea your passionate about, go get a job. I know this may feel lousy and a bit soul sucking. But, get a job at a big company and learn a skill. Get good at that skill. Meet people in your industry.
- Develop a mentor network of people 10 to 15 years older than you. These people will be super valuable to you in your career and in your life. You’d be surprised what you can learn from friends that are older than you and that are not your mother or father. Ask them to coffee.
- Start networking now. Career mobility is more about who you know than anything else. Ugly but very true.
