After 9 months of trying, I realized I shouldn’t have built a startup alone

Photo credit: Pixabay.

I spent the last nine months pursuing a startup idea—from a step-by-step tool to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into a business, a cybersecurity solution to help small and medium businesses up their level of security, to a basic registration system for governments using blockchain. But now, I’m done. I quit. Let me tell you why.

To give you a little background, I was totally unprepared when I was trying to build a startup. I got a master’s degree from a top-tier business school and had experience in finance, strategy, new business development, and in advising startups.

The piece of advice that kept recurring from other entrepreneurs was: Just do it. All entrepreneurs seemed to agree that starting a business yourself is the greatest learning experience you can get (after failing, of course).

So, there I was thinking: You know what, why don’t I face my insecurity and just start something? I know the odds of being successful are small. But yeah, let’s do it!

What the past months were like

I cut out most activities that didn’t help in building my startup. I was facing this difficulty of living in a foreign country on my own.

I began speaking to as many potential customers as possible every day. Many iterations followed. Insecurity came luring around the corner with every change I went through.

And to focus even more, I stopped:

• Talking to friends who didn’t help me create value
• Checking my Facebook news feed
• Paying attention to politics

I was basically feeling like the stormtrooper below. I felt my idea was close, but I just couldn’t reach it.

Photo credit: Pexels.