Hi! You can call me Jerma. I'm 29 M, I'm a software developer and entrepreneur. I have been reading and rereading TMF and Unscripted since 2 years ago. I'm shy/introverted by nature, but I finally decided to join the fun on the forum!
I have been drawn to entrepreneurship since I was 18. I could go on and on about my past experiences in entrepreneurship, but it really boils down to failures, shit jobs or worse, moderate successes. It's easy to get stuck in a "local maximum" that pays the bills, but takes away all your time and it's a trap I felt into for years. The lure of entering a hitchhiking business relationship is also very strong for me. I felt for it multiple time and it always ended up badly.
I did web development for a while, launched a few failed products, then I did ecommerce, then I gave up on entrepreneurship altogether and got a "real job" in tech. At that point in my life, my confidence was at the lowest. I had failed to make it out on my own. I felt like I had wasted years of my life while my friends were advancing their career. I thought that the reason I failed at business was because of my introverted personality. My family was telling me that I just wasn't suited for entrepreneurship and it was time for me grow up.
That tech job was my first real "white collar" employment experience. I went into that job filled with shame and insecurities, I felt like an imposter and I had so much catching up to do. After a few months though, my perceptions changed.
The technical level was actually way lower than I expected. Most meetings could be emails. Nobody cared about the customer! My manager didn't care about my ideas to improve the product or the business (he didn't seem to care about anything except looking good in front of his own boss). They just wanted me to be a cog in the machine. So much politic and red tape.. The commute was soul-crushing. I was actually a top performer, I had a good income.. and I was so F*cking miserable.
That's when the realization hit me.. This is it. That's my life until retirement. This is what most people would be content with. But, I want to do so much more! I want to build so much more, help more people. I want to do meaningful things. I AM wasting my F*cking life! I was exactly where society wanted me to be, but I wanted out. It was a really hard situation for me and I didn't know where to go. That's when I found TMF . MJ helped me revive my dreams and he gave me the confidence to believe in myself again.
Fast forward to today, I'm working on my SaaS business that I launched with a friend. It took forever to build and it was a really long and iterative process that required a lot of execution. We are at a (modest) 2k/month profit in recurring revenue right now. I'm in the process of learning more about marketing and sales in order to grow. It's not easy and I'm still struggling against my biggest enemy by far: myself (I might talk about that more and my new interest in meta-cognitive skills in some other post later). I'm working on it.
Maybe I shouldn't proclaim this, but here it is : I'M GOING TO MAKE IT!!
This is getting pretty long already. I'm really looking forward to talking with you guys.
I have been drawn to entrepreneurship since I was 18. I could go on and on about my past experiences in entrepreneurship, but it really boils down to failures, shit jobs or worse, moderate successes. It's easy to get stuck in a "local maximum" that pays the bills, but takes away all your time and it's a trap I felt into for years. The lure of entering a hitchhiking business relationship is also very strong for me. I felt for it multiple time and it always ended up badly.
I did web development for a while, launched a few failed products, then I did ecommerce, then I gave up on entrepreneurship altogether and got a "real job" in tech. At that point in my life, my confidence was at the lowest. I had failed to make it out on my own. I felt like I had wasted years of my life while my friends were advancing their career. I thought that the reason I failed at business was because of my introverted personality. My family was telling me that I just wasn't suited for entrepreneurship and it was time for me grow up.
That tech job was my first real "white collar" employment experience. I went into that job filled with shame and insecurities, I felt like an imposter and I had so much catching up to do. After a few months though, my perceptions changed.
The technical level was actually way lower than I expected. Most meetings could be emails. Nobody cared about the customer! My manager didn't care about my ideas to improve the product or the business (he didn't seem to care about anything except looking good in front of his own boss). They just wanted me to be a cog in the machine. So much politic and red tape.. The commute was soul-crushing. I was actually a top performer, I had a good income.. and I was so F*cking miserable.
That's when the realization hit me.. This is it. That's my life until retirement. This is what most people would be content with. But, I want to do so much more! I want to build so much more, help more people. I want to do meaningful things. I AM wasting my F*cking life! I was exactly where society wanted me to be, but I wanted out. It was a really hard situation for me and I didn't know where to go. That's when I found TMF . MJ helped me revive my dreams and he gave me the confidence to believe in myself again.
Fast forward to today, I'm working on my SaaS business that I launched with a friend. It took forever to build and it was a really long and iterative process that required a lot of execution. We are at a (modest) 2k/month profit in recurring revenue right now. I'm in the process of learning more about marketing and sales in order to grow. It's not easy and I'm still struggling against my biggest enemy by far: myself (I might talk about that more and my new interest in meta-cognitive skills in some other post later). I'm working on it.
Maybe I shouldn't proclaim this, but here it is : I'M GOING TO MAKE IT!!
This is getting pretty long already. I'm really looking forward to talking with you guys.
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