It feels like I’ve come so far, but I’m only at the beginning
Entrepreneurship tickles time, doubles it over, and allows you to do a lot more than you ordinarily would in the same span of time within other contexts. You experience a heightened sense of urgency that’s inversely proportional to the size of your bank account, propelling you into action, even if you don’t always know whether the steps you’re taking are right or not. But you persist and believe, because there’s something bigger than you and greater than you pulling you towards it. For some people, it’s the prospect of changing the world. For others, it’s the need to create. Some people are in it for the money, though I really caution anyone who uses this as a motivator because for most of us, the money will simply not be there, at least in the beginning. For me, it’s to see how well I can pull together all my disparate interests, experiences and talents to create something tangible and useful. The challenging thing for me is finding meaningful ways to mark positive progress, because not everything that marks a step forward is something that can be quantified.
During the development process, the markers of progress were milestones in the design journey – things like the final product requirements, the first prototype, the pre-production prototype, the negotiated agreement with the factory to produce the product. Once the development work concluded, the Kickstarter video, the Kickstarter campaign, the successful manufacture of the product, the launch of the website, the first sale, etc. etc. were the notches showing forward momentum. Today marked one of the bigger milestones for me – seeing my baby… my non-human offspring, on the pages of B&H Photo and Video. Booyah!
While that’s an amazing milestone for me, another way I’ve gauged my progress has been the people and the relationships I’ve formed and cultivated, and the lessons I’ve learned about the process of going from idea to selling and shipping a product. The former is really important to me, and I can gladly say that by that measure, I’ve made huge strides in the business by virtue of the people I’ve met and grown relationships with. Here’s my shoutout and gratitude to all of you who’ve supported, coaxed, challenged and comforted me so far. Thank you.