I quit

In August 2019, I quit my full-time job to pursue entrepreneurship full-time.

Making the decision was not easy and frightening. However, I think I am at a stage of my life where I can try out this experiment.

The deal-breaker for me was the following question:

When I grow older and reflect on my life, which one would I regret more?

Trying out entrepreneurship or sticking to keep things the way they were?

My conclusion was, as long as I am taking a calculated risk, I must give that experiment a try.

My Whys

Some of my motivations to try that entrepreneurship experiment:

Provide Value

Provide the highest value possible to other people.

Entrepreneurship, as a way of living, seems to be an effective way to provide high value to our society. My long-term goal is to be as useful as possible to the world.

To me, entrepreneurship means tackling problems and build solutions to these problems. By tackling problems that I care about, I maximize how useful I am.

Get out of the time-selling business

Entrepreneurship is a potential medium for me to sell value instead of my time.

A typical wealth equation for most of us is:

Financial Reward = hourly rate x hours (value magnitude x hours)

This has two limitations:

  • A hard limit on the hourly rate on average (unless I am a world-class performer in something).
  • Time is not scalable. Theoretically, I have a maximum of 24 hours per day to work.

I would like to change the time-based salary model and instead remove “time” from my wealth equation. I aim to maximize both the magnitude and scale of the value I can provide.

I hope to move to this wealth equation instead:

Financial Reward = net profit + asset value (value magnitude x value scale)

Flexibility

I would like to have a career that gives me the highest amount of flexibility in my life.

I would like to eventually have a business that:

  • Is location-independent.
  • Gives me more control over my time.
  • Gives me autonomy on the tasks I work on.

Creativity

Society seems to promote specialization. However, the world is changing quickly and being able to acquire new skills is important.

Entrepreneurship can create an environment that maximizes creativity and learning new skills, especially those skills that are not necessarily for my “field”.

Initial plan

A common narrative (in my bubble) with entrepreneurship is that one should aim for these things:

  1. Create a startup company.
  2. Look for investors.
  3. Hire more people and focus on growth.
  4. Wait for an acquisition offer or take the company public.

However, for me, I don’t think this will be the best approach.

I would like to be more of a solopreneur (at least for now) and invest my own resources to grow my business. More like the old-school businesses that focus on being profitable and cash-flow positive.

For starters, I would like to pursue 3 tracks:

  • Teach coding.
  • Develop a digital online product.
  • Freelancing as a developer.

But…

Everybody has a plan until they are punched in the face. - Mike Tyson

For now, I would like to go in that direction. However, As I learn more my plan will change for sure.

Coding Instructor - Nordschool

Based on feedback, I tend to be a good communicator so I would like to experiment with online teaching.

As a software developer and a good communicator, I can provide some value to people in the tech field.

I am creating online technical material related to web development.

The initial thought is to create a teaching platform called Nordschool where I can share my material in terms of free & paid courses.

Digital Online Product - Nordgigs

As an entrepreneur, I aim to focus my energy on solving some problems I care about.

In Finland where I live, I see more people (at least in my bubble) moving to the gig economy. However, there seems to be a lack of online services that facilitate easily matching the supply & demand for freelancers.

I am exploring this space where potentially I could provide value to other entrepreneurs.

The initial thought is to create an online job board. The service would be the place where companies that need freelancers could advertise their needs and entrepreneurs could sign up to receive a notification when something that matches their skills shows up.

Freelancing

As a web developer, I will dedicate some of my time per year for freelance projects in Finland and remotely.

Building a personal brand or a product is a long-term game, I think freelancing may smoothen the ride that would allow me to pursue my other long-term projects.

Closing words

I am not sure how this experiment will turn out, but I am very excited. In the worst-case scenario, I would have acquired more useful skills so it won’t be that bad after-all.

As part of my philosophy aiming to be as useful as possible to others. I will share regular updates about my journey for anyone interested.

You can follow my progress by signing up for my newsletter.

Another way to find my experiment’s updates is to check this tag, all the posts related will show up there.

Credits

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash