January 27, 2007

Ideas Are Hard

For a while now I’ve been trying to think of some sort of business that I can start. I love my job – the people I work with and the work I get to do, not to mention the benefits, are great – but a bit of me knows that I won’t be satisfied forever. I also know that I’m spoiled; I won’t be able to handle working at a large company and it will be difficult to go to a less amiable work environment.

The solution then is to start my own company. Then I will be able to set my own hours, work with people I like and work on interesting projects. I’ve come up with a couple of ideas but it’s very difficult to focus on one. Mostly it’s an issue of not believing that a product or service will fly; it’s very easy to think that an idea is silly and won’t work and, subsequently, abandon the idea all together. To start, I need to bite the bullet and just try something; if it fails, I’ll still be OK.

The advantage of trying something now is that I can do it in my spare time. I can craft something without the risk of dropping everything and, potentially, losing my shirt. I don’t need to look for investors or co-founders because I can take my time and do it all myself. It’s time to pick an idea and run with it. The fear of failure shouldn’t deter me.