The chicken or the egg? What the entrepreneurial gurus don't tell you.

 

Photo source by Nicole Martins Ferreira from Oberlo -  14 Jan, 2020

About two years ago, I started on my tech entrepreneur journey, because I truly believed I could make a difference, and wasn't satisfied with the limitations set upon me, as an employee. I ran into a few brick walls along the way, and almost gave up numerous times, before I had anything to show for the late nights and hundreds of hours of research and writing. No one believed I could do it, even my wife had her reservations, and rightly so, I had nothing to show for my effort, except for three failed business ventures, and being sold down the river twice, by two different scammers.

A lot of adversity came my way in a short period of time, a lot more than documentaries on successful people like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, portray. This may be because I came into the tech world relatively late in life, and am less of a genius and more of a dreamer with grit, who refuses to give up on the the idea that the "American Dream" is still viable. It could be my belief that people are good by nature which put a target on my back. I may never know why these things happened. One thing I learned is, even in Silicon Slopes, an "up and coming" tech scene, there are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Over a short period of time, I've realized a good idea is much easier to come by than a team that will jump on board and help realize it, without putting their self interests first. In addition to that, if you have a really good idea, someone else will think of it eventually, so it is a race to see who can get it to market first.

This is where the double edged sword comes into play for the beginning entrepreneur, unless you have deep pockets, you need to find funding fast, if you want to have any hope of getting your idea to market before the competition does.

Sounds easy right? We are all six degrees of separation from someone wealthy so, all it should take is a little bit of legwork, which anyone is capable of doing. In theory this is true, in practice it couldn't be further from the truth, unless you are one of the lucky few who was born with a silver spoon, and the connections that come along with it.

For the rest of us, it is significantly more complicated an enterprise, because of one minor detail, those who have access to the money you want and need, don't know or trust you, because you have yet to prove you can take their money and grow it more than a simple stock purchase on Wall-street. The number of entrepreneurs with great ideas that don't pan out for whatever reason, are a dime a dozen, and investors know that all too well.

Those who have big time investor money got it by being wise and not wasting money on unproven, "blue sky" investments. They invest in people and businesses they are familiar with, and who have made them money before. So you say, I need money, but can't get it because I have no experience, nor the warm contacts that would give me access to this lifeline? How do I get experience, if no one will give me a chance?

That's the proverbial which came first? The chicken or the egg? You need the money to do the thing, but because you haven't done the thing, no one wants to give you the money. So, how do you get the funding?

There is no right or wrong answer here. Everyone's journey is unique, and complicated, because no one has the same set of talents or intelligence level. No one has the same group of connections. You might even have no one in your immediate circle who is willing or able to help you.

If you are not already a proven, wealthy, entrepreneur, it's impossible to be successful with your big idea, unless you're an incredibly intelligent, single person, living in your parent's basement, who has all the right connections, and can afford to invest all your money into your dream you say? That's not entirely true, there are exceptions, but it requires a butt-load of sacrifices.

The question is, what are you willing to sacrifice to realize your wildest dreams, and for how long?

Robert Morton 

Co-founder