Hey there!
I just read the latest Unscripted book. I found it really structured my ideas about business and also added a lot of useful insights.
Here's my story
My mother was always entrepreneurial. For as long as I can remember, she was doing business. First, as a tailor trying to sell clothes designed by her, then as a shop owner. However, for one reason or another she always struggled in business. Now, she's debt-ridden and I'm working with her to help her both financially and professionally. I'm paying off her debt while teaching her to become a software developer. So, she can finally land on her feet.
Despite all that, I'm really thankful to her that she managed to light the entrepreneurial spirit in me since childhood. She taught me to work since I was a teenager. During one of my summer jobs I was working as an entrance fee boy at a swimming pool. One of my responsibilities was to sweep the dust around the pool each morning. I didn't like it. I remember one morning, while sweeping, that I said to myself that I'd set myself up for life in a way that I never have to do that again when I graduate from school. From that day onward, I decided to pursue a well-paying career while learning as much as possible about business.
So, I got into software engineering. And did a pretty decent career out of it. With the standard of living in Bulgaria one can easily work 4-hours a day and make $5k a month after taxes with that profession. This is a lot of money here. However, it's still wage slavery.
Given my entrepreneurial spirit I've always wanted to start a business. And my purpose is to prove to myself I can do it. I like my job, I have enough freedom but the desire to prove this to myself has always been nagging me.
A few months ago I had a new engineer join my team. I was his manager and saw great leadership potential in him. So, I started mentoring him. One month later, a big reorg happened and he took over my team and I was moved to lead another team. However, we really liked to talk with each other. He has always pursued business opportunities. Up to now, he's had 3 business, 2 of which didn't prove to have much market value. We started going out a lot. We talked about how to be better leaders and managers, how to do better business. This inspired me to delve more into business literature and to start thinking about what new venture I can start.
Currently, opposite to what's advised in Unscripted , I'm dealing with two businesses. One that I started 2 years ago, with very little money and time invested. Another that I started in the last month. I'm pretty sure that soon I'll have to have the guts and focus on only one of them.
I'll post more about them in the "Process and Execution" category. However, here's a short summary:
The first business is a boutique family winery. My wife has about 14 decares (about 3.5 acres) of vines. Her grandfather and her aunt had always been making wine out of it, but never managed to do a profitable business. So, I decided to see if I could help them with that.
The second is a consultancy. It's concerned with helping software organizations scale their people, processes and technology.
I just read the latest Unscripted book. I found it really structured my ideas about business and also added a lot of useful insights.
Here's my story
My mother was always entrepreneurial. For as long as I can remember, she was doing business. First, as a tailor trying to sell clothes designed by her, then as a shop owner. However, for one reason or another she always struggled in business. Now, she's debt-ridden and I'm working with her to help her both financially and professionally. I'm paying off her debt while teaching her to become a software developer. So, she can finally land on her feet.
Despite all that, I'm really thankful to her that she managed to light the entrepreneurial spirit in me since childhood. She taught me to work since I was a teenager. During one of my summer jobs I was working as an entrance fee boy at a swimming pool. One of my responsibilities was to sweep the dust around the pool each morning. I didn't like it. I remember one morning, while sweeping, that I said to myself that I'd set myself up for life in a way that I never have to do that again when I graduate from school. From that day onward, I decided to pursue a well-paying career while learning as much as possible about business.
So, I got into software engineering. And did a pretty decent career out of it. With the standard of living in Bulgaria one can easily work 4-hours a day and make $5k a month after taxes with that profession. This is a lot of money here. However, it's still wage slavery.
Given my entrepreneurial spirit I've always wanted to start a business. And my purpose is to prove to myself I can do it. I like my job, I have enough freedom but the desire to prove this to myself has always been nagging me.
A few months ago I had a new engineer join my team. I was his manager and saw great leadership potential in him. So, I started mentoring him. One month later, a big reorg happened and he took over my team and I was moved to lead another team. However, we really liked to talk with each other. He has always pursued business opportunities. Up to now, he's had 3 business, 2 of which didn't prove to have much market value. We started going out a lot. We talked about how to be better leaders and managers, how to do better business. This inspired me to delve more into business literature and to start thinking about what new venture I can start.
Currently, opposite to what's advised in Unscripted , I'm dealing with two businesses. One that I started 2 years ago, with very little money and time invested. Another that I started in the last month. I'm pretty sure that soon I'll have to have the guts and focus on only one of them.
I'll post more about them in the "Process and Execution" category. However, here's a short summary:
The first business is a boutique family winery. My wife has about 14 decares (about 3.5 acres) of vines. Her grandfather and her aunt had always been making wine out of it, but never managed to do a profitable business. So, I decided to see if I could help them with that.
The second is a consultancy. It's concerned with helping software organizations scale their people, processes and technology.
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