7 Lessons I have Learnt from Starting a Business in My 20s
Starting your own business can be intimidating, and I can vouch for it, as I started my own business in my 20s. But nothing is more exciting than watching your company grow steadily over the years. As a young entrepreneur, I have faced my share of challenges, ups, and downs and yet managed to become a successful businessperson. Throughout my journey, I have learned a few important lessons that will also help you through your entrepreneurship journey.
1. You Need Right People by Your Side:
The entire business might be your idea, but you cannot achieve it alone. You do need a few people by your side to help develop your business plans into reality. You need a dependable and efficient team that understands your business vision, helps you strategize your future plans, and supports you throughout the process of business development.
Even if you are a solopreneur, you still will need partners, vendors, mentors, and peers to help you grow your business. Hence, focus on hiring the best resources available.
2. Time is Money:
Your time is valuable, even if you are your own boss. When you do your own business, you may start working overtime every day without calculating how much value it adds to your business. The number of hours does not matter. What matters is the return on your time invested. Every minute you spend working for the company should directly impact the value addition.
3. Business is a Game of Poker:
You must have noticed that chess has been used as a metaphor for business for a long time. But if you think about it, the game of chess has defined rules and can be considered a game of finite alternatives. You might not be able to predict your opponent’s next move, but at least all the chess pieces are in plain sight.
While on the other hand, poker is a game where you cannot predict your opponent’s next move as you have incomplete information. It is in this situation how you play your cards matters the most.
Luckily, I have been an avid poker player since my early 20s and have enjoyed playing poker at reputed real money Canadian poker sitessuch as 888poker, BetMGM, PartyPoker, and PokerStars. Living in Canada has been a blessing in this case for me, as online gambling is sort of a gray area in Canada and is a provincial issue. Technically, it is not illegal to make real money online playing poker here, which is why there are many poker sites that allow Canadians to gamble.
If you are wondering how being a nearly professional poker player has helped me grow the business, well, for starters, it has taught me to be more confident about making rational decisions, to study my opponents carefully, not be hesitant to switch strategies, to act strong even if your position is weak and mainly develop my appetite to take on calculated risks.
4. Failure is a Part of the Journey:
When I started my business, I used to get stressed when I failed to achieve even a minor business goal. With my years of experience of being an entrepreneur, I have learned that failure is part and parcel of the business world, and it will occasionally occur, even when your business is a success. In fact, you should view it as a lesson you have learned through experience that will hone your skills and strategies further.
5. Taking Risks is Essential:
When you decide to do a business, the entire journey you will experience is because of the risk you have taken to believe in yourself. Entrepreneurs need to take risks at every step, or their business will stagnate. If you do not take risks, you can never become an over-achiever. I am not suggesting that you take risks at every step. Instead, be calculative about your next move, and if you believe the risk is worth taking, then go for it.
Sometimes, taking a risk might lead to inevitable failure, but that should not discourage you. Do a case study and understand what went wrong. In the process, your risk-taking capability in business will improve, and you can make better decisions.
6. Do Not Under Estimate Hard Work:
This is one of my top lessons as a young entrepreneur. Many people believe that several new businesses are launched every year, but only a few lucky ones succeed. Well, luck is a tiny factor contributing to business success. The main element is hard work. Every time I have worked harder, my business has flourished. You should work in the right direction, of course, but the more work you put in the better results.
7. Learning Should Never Stop:
I started working for myself too soon, so I stopped learning too early. A few years after I set up the business, it struck me that I was finding it hard to understand a few processes. This made me realize I had stopped evolving with time and that my knowledge was limited.
When you start your own business, you should never stop learning more about your field. Technology keeps evolving every year, and your knowledge needs to be polished if you wish to stay relevant in the business. You cannot survive in the business world if you do not focus on the knowledge development of you and your employees.
I would recommend you to put in place a team of people to conduct training and seminars for your employees to keep them and you updated. This will give your company a competitive edge in the market.
The Bottom Line:
While reading about these lessons might be easy, experiencing them can be overwhelming. Be prepared for this roller coaster journey as you work hard toward becoming a successful entrepreneur. The most important thing you should remember throughout the process is that no matter the obstacles, you will stay consistent and work hard to achieve your goals. As you gain experience, you will face challenges and form your own list of learnings from them in the later years.
