Have you ever started a business? If so, what were your expectations? You likely overestimated initial earnings and underestimated the work involved but, you also likely felt that it was worth it, that the long hours for little return would one day come to pay off.
Ever failed at a business? It likely doesn't feel good but for those that have, the attempt itself probably had value and in hindsight, one may even do it all again. Granted, one may make a few changes to better fit the market to increase the chances of success.
If you were starting a business, what kinds of returns are you expecting, how fast, what risks are you willing to take, what are you willing to lose, what are your realistic chances of surviving, let alone being successful? If you knew all if the challenges facing you, would you still take the shot?
Last night, my wife and I again talked about future possibility as she has come to realise that there is a chance for us to actually make something out of this, and it scares her. In her words:
The better you do, the more I worry.
She worries because of the potential for loss, the potential for any number of things to step in and take all that we have worked for away. The interesting thing is, is that this is new behaviour from her.
I have a business and she has encouraged me over the last four or so years to put in the long hours, chase customers, work hard. And I have. Not at one point did she say the same though. She never worried that it may fail even though the odds of success for a one-person business consultancy run by a foreigner isn't overly high.
She never worried about us 'losing it all', she never asked if I should take some out 'just in case'. For me, this is the sign of opportunity, this is why I will put my nose to the grindstone and ramp up my efforts to learn and invest. The uncertainty she feels, is our opportunity.
Where is the ceiling on a one-person business consultancy? How much per hour will a customer pay? How many customers can I fit into a week, a month, a year? what is the cost of adding an employee? What happens if the economy drops like it did in 2008? Businesses such as mine are the first to be cut from the budgets. There is a high uncertainty but, because it is in a 'normal' business area, very few identify the ceiling capacity or the risks of failure.
For me trying to have some kind of financial freedom, there is nothing more practical than putting in the effort and dreaming that Steem, cryptocurrencies, SMTs and all of the associated offshoots will boom. It is a pragmatic dream.
I was asked yesterday what I was doing with the SBD I earn. Trading for Steem and powering up is the answer. Is it silly, is it a risk, could it backfire? Yes, It could. I could lose everything that I have put in and my wife will ask 'Why didn't you take some out earlier?' After all, something is better than nothing right? I don't think so, not just because of the feelings of regret if Steem does take off but, the idea that I would have not been true to myself and given in to the FUD, the fear. I would have sold myself out.
The uncertainty my wife feels is because this is in an area that few understand, even those that are deep inside. The technology is one thing but the upside potential is something altogether new for most people's experience, and definitely from the experience of people that aren't around the industry at all.
How many times in history have you heard of people being told by parents, friends and family that they are crazy to try, crazy to invest into some business or another, crazy to take a chance on uncertainty, something where there is few rules, no market, low information? How did it turn out? Who knows how many have failed under such circumstances, how many have proven their family correct. But, some have not failed, some have rolled the dice, invested themselves and benefited enormously to become voices of strength and supporters of many.
This is not about money for me alone although I would be dishonest to say it isn't a part of it. This morning I took a bus and am now on a train to a client company in the middle of nowhere. I needed some coins for the bus and was rummaging through a drawer and a little box for 3 euros. I remember not so many years ago I was doing the same to buy groceries, even though I had a job, even though I was pushing each day.
I was working hard, doing all I can and still struggling to make ends meet but what was the ceiling on my activities, how far could I climb or would I always be destined to struggle? But no one ever feared for it, no one ever said stop investing your time into something that has such a low ceiling no matter the work you put in. Why not? Why did I spend so long fighting for so little and not even enjoying the experience in the fight? Was day in day out working for scraps practical? Who is the one dreaming when the chances of success in traditional industry is almost zero?
At some point, I will take some of what I have earned out but, this is not the time. There is too much potential in the near future, too much upside from staying in, than skimming. It is a risk. Traders say never risk what you can't afford to lose. Affording is one thing, willingness to lose another.
My wife understands this attitude but it does scare her as she knows what a few hundred or thousand can do for us at the moment. But, she is also starting to understand what potential there may be, what doors we could open, what dreams we could realise, who we could support.
We are living in uncertain times where job losses through automation, pressures from climate change, poverty, starvation and a growing threat of war and conflict is where we live, how we live. Me and others like me who are playing at the safe and secure game is what has led to these situations, we have lost our ability to act, we have given up our voices. We blame others, but this society is ours.
To get a voice in this world, we need capital and to get that, we must work to create it and we must work where the traditionalists fear, for to try and beat them at their own game is a losing battle. And to create enough for us to have a voice, we need to make sure we do not sell out early for to do so is to hand over our voices to those who do not sing for us.
If we want to do good in the world, want to improve your situation, save the environment, end poverty, feed the hungry, go to Mars? We are going to need capital, we have to stop relying on others to provide it for us. I may end up scrounging in drawers for coins once again but, what happens if dreams come true? In the case of failure, at the very least I would have tried at something I care about, tried to earn my voice.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]