My Small Business Startup Inspiration
Then, about 4 years ago, my wife was starting her clinical years of medical school, I was getting more frustrated by the day with my job, and we had a daughter who was spending way too much time in daycare. In short, between the guilt we felt over sticking our daughter in daycare 10+ hours a day, and the long and difficult hours we were both working, we were all miserable. Close to our breaking point, we lasted about 3 days in this situation before my wife took an emergency leave of absence from school, and by the end of the week, I had also left my job. I’m not sure if it was more of an act of inspiration or desperation, but at that moment, we finally took the plunge into making our own business a full time endeavor.
It took some adjustment, but by the start of the next quarter, my wife was back at school, and I was home balancing life as a full time Dad and a business owner. My company, Neraida Vision Systems didn’t take off like I hoped, but it was a huge learning experience. Because failure was not an option, necessity caused me to take a step in another direction. As a result, my next company, Natural Wood Floors, was born about a year later.
So that, in a nutshell, is how I ended up taking the big leap into full time entrepreneurship. I always love to hear startup stories, so jump in and share what inspired you to take charge of your own life, quit that day job, and start a company of your own!
I certainly appreciate your personal family experience. Successful entrepreneurs stop judging people and become supportive of unique situations. Why I love this small club.
My wife, Julie, and I are unique, but never had to take “the leap”. Instead, we worked in parallel to building business early in our career. Me, I always worked directly with the founder doing something new, even in college. I was a High School baseball umpire so I could thicken my thick skin while building the first ever advertising strategy and training program for Beau Joe’s restaurant (for the restaurateur)…while helping someone start a record label…while launching a tech support company (I am not a tech support guy, but “they” were)…while, well you get the point. All starts from when I was eight years old and started earning my own cash for baseball cards and the ice cream man.
Also, while in college, my first insightful mentor wanted me to join his firm buying companies but wanted me to be an executive recruiter first so I could, as he put it, “build best in class teams and hang out with grey hairs”. He also said “you are in training for two years, David”. I did it while moonlighting some deals with him. But I was so successful as an executive recruiter, I stayed in the business longer and even moved to CA to run the western region during the dot com boom. I had 33 reports, worked for the owner running half of the fastest growing retained search firm in the country, made money and lost money – perfect! While in CA, my mentor, Chuck, died.
Meanwhile, my wife started a business monetizing childhood talent and boy is she. Julie is shy but steps out of her comfort zone in huge ways starting with raising $ and traveling the world for a year with Up with People. Her first business is a success (with mistakes all along the way) and now we take it retail on and offline with sales pending before we even turn it on. A customer created company! Ingenious, sorry, but it is. – Customer development baby!
Julie and I feel we are just getting started so we are willing to compromise other important things like living/owning in the Mountains and starting a family of our own. Even with that, we give back with time and money to our community and other start-ups that inspire me – which creates more risk, maybe, but so what – every day ROCKS!