5 takeaways from leaving Google to start a flower company in Southeast Asia

Photo credit: Robert Scoble

My taxi driver gazed out at the gridlocked traffic and then quickly turned back to look at me in sheer disbelief. I’d just told him that I quit Google to fix the flower industry. He clearly thought I was insane. How could someone leave the ‘best company in the world’ for flowers? This was the third such reaction I’d had like that in the last week.

It is a wonderful place to work with amazing people, but in my heart I knew it wasn’t for me.

Google just wasn’t the one. It was kind of like my college girlfriend. She was beautiful, ambitious, and intelligent, but something deep inside me always knew she was not the one for me. Google was similar; it is a wonderful place to work with amazing people, but in my heart I knew it wasn’t for me.

I just turned 27, so maybe we could call it a quarter-life crisis. Simply put, it felt like a calling and I knew with absolute certainty that this was something I had to do. There would never be a more opportune moment than this. So I took the leap.

This is what I’ve learned in my first 6 months.

1. You’re either all in, or you’re not going to make it

I used to go to work at 9 and leave by 6, every day, Monday to Friday. If I ran out of time, or if I didn’t feel like it, it wasn’t a problem. I could always just do it tomorrow.

Now it’s different. My life no longer belongs to me. I have people who depend on me, partners who need me, and customers I will do anything for. I am literally running as fast as I can.

I am all in. This is hard, and I know it won’t get easier, but o-my-god does it feel amazing. Every day I am breathing life into something. Every day I learn more, maybe fail a little, but give more of myself than I could have ever thought possible.

This is pure passion and there is no faking it.

2. Does your idea scale?

So many of us hope to come across that one perfect storm of an idea, but one flash of inspiration does not unlock the door to wealth, fame and prestige, or even the tiniest bit of success.

Ideas are the building blocks, and of course they have great merit, but it is what you do with this idea after that actually matters. On day two, your great idea essentially ceases to matter. The only things that matter from this point forward are hustle and execution.

In the beginning there were dozens or even hundreds of messenger or photo filter apps. What se-parated WhatsApp and Instagram from the hundreds of others that joined the startup graveyard is not that eureka moment, it is the hard-work, dedication and belief that ensued.

3. Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster

Everything takes more time than you think it does. Sitting in traffic, hiring, fundraising, customer service, development, even the gym. It all takes time and you will very quickly start to think that there just aren’t enough hours in the day for you to get everything done. Unfortunately there is no fast lane, and there are no real short cuts.

4. Network like crazy

5. Be patient