We commonly hear about failures and struggles through the experiences of celebrated entrepreneurs looking back in retrospect from a position of notability. We trust their advice on how to make it through, because they made it through. That time of struggle, however, is overshadowed by the success that we already know soon follows. As much as we all want to believe that we can repeat the formulas we read about, it is only in the doing that we actually get there. 

On Starting Somewhere brings awareness to these moments of vulnerability in early stage ventures, and questions why we make the decision to start businesses rather than continue on a traditional job path. It rationalizes the obstacles that seem so overwhelming through it's central message: we all have to start somewhere. And it addresses the moments when defeat is waiting outside the door, reminding us that the only way to accomplish anything worth while is one step at a time. 

EXCERPTS

on starting somewhere

1.

Once, in one of my first seasons as a correspondent for a New York based fashion website, I was outside of the Ecole de Medecin near Odéon in Paris, waiting for the Martin Margiela Mens’ Fashion Show to begin. Actually, waiting to even get inside to take a place where I would then wait some more for the show to begin. I was surrounded by fashion heavies and fashion up and comers and fashion wannabes . I don’t know where I fit in in all of that because in my mind I just didn’t belong there at all. As privileged as I felt to be in attendance, I felt terribly uncomfortable as part of the scene. I wished to be invisible. I wished so much to be invisible. Just to take my place and watch the beautiful show and write my article and store it away in my mind bank of experiences. But I was not invisible. (I am still not). So I stood there, out of place and awkward and unsmiling and tense and trying not to make eye contact with people or stare too long at people who were too obviously dressed with the hope of being stared at.

When through the crowd I see the Fed Ex delivery-man. He walks purposefully through the mob of people in between his truck and the door he’s heading towards and I thought to myself: “Why can’t I just be a Fed Ex delivery person?”

He has a sense of purpose, and at the same time can blend into any setting without self-awareness. His workday consists of a list of tasks just like the day before. An unadulterated comfort zone.

I truly believe sometimes that this would make life so much simpler. I am so tormented (it sounds dramatic, but it does feel terribly dramatic a lot of the time). If I could just have a simple job that was the same every day, where nothing will be asked of me tomorrow that I don’t already know how to do today. My God, what a life that would be.

Would I be bored? Would I wonder: “There must be something else?” Is ignorance bliss? And once tasted, does a life of building and problem solving become your curse? Futile questions. The Boss knows it, too. A Jersey boy looking for more: “There’s something happening somewhere, baby I just know that there is.”

And it’s not as if, after gaining a certain amount of experience, the questions stop. With every new day comes a new set of unknowns. There is an evident propensity for tackling these daily impediments within the entrepreneurial class. Otherwise we would not get past day one. But this is also that pivotal moment of no return. We can always take the easy way. And so we ask ourselves: “What am I after?”

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2.

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It sometimes feels indulgent to step away from work, but in the end we have to turn ‘off’ sometimes. We have to revitalize. There is a misconception across many industries, and pervasive in the startup world, that the more you work the more dedicated you are. The less you sleep the more passionate you are. Like I’ve said, I am not fully functional without my sleep, so if I am really thinking of what is best for my business and for myself I will force myself under the covers. It also seems to me that if we are really working all the time, we might just be terribly disorganized. There are most definitely exceptions to this rule, and I have known deadlines to keep me working around the clock. But I would never make a habit of it, and I definitely don’t consider it a badge of honor.   

In between all of this work, there are the moments when we have to be out in the world exposed to inspiration. Without taking in information from the outside world, our internal monologue becomes self-centric and unrelatable to others. Business ideas that don’t connect with the public are not worth a whole lot. Similarly, most artists feel satisfaction only once they’ve made a connection with others through their work. Before establishing this connection, it is a lonely place. A business without customers is lonely, as is a leader without followers. The more that we understand of the world around us the more convincing our argument can be to get people behind our cause.

I especially love cross-disciplinary discussions because the world has a way of leading many of us to the same conclusion at the same moment in time which we than express through a wide variety of media. The thoughts in this book, for example, relate to thoughts that have been trickling out into the world recently in conversations, various arts and writing, which I think has propelled the urgency of these words. It is a conversation that is happening right now, and the transparency of my rhetoric is only to point out the fact that we have developed this engrained sense of immediacy in our commentary. If we join the conversation, we can find connection, and that is the ultimate satisfaction for the designer, the artist, and the entrepreneur alike.

Many creative thinkers find this kind of connection difficult without using their work as a conversational tool or vessel. Relating to the humanness in us and around us, we find people who relate to the work we produce. Until first experiencing this recognition, it can feel like a very vulnerable act to produce creative work. But in the end, once we take that risk we satisfy a visceral need for expression that when suppressed can cause all kinds of unhappiness. Once released, offers a strong sense of empowerment.

While that soliloquy might resonate more with the pure artists, starting a business has much the same effect. It begins when we identify something within ourselves that leads us to seek something more, usually not in the material world, but in the immaterial. It is scary to think of taking that leap, but if we deny it we end up feeling a sense of loss for something we never had. 

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