…Oy, I am already grown up! Bummer.
Anyways.
Here’s something cute that y’all do not know about me, and something that I had myself forgotten until recently: when I was 7 years old, I dreamt of starting my own company called The WeiWei Company. Extremely creative name, I know, and very adorable, ha-ha…
However, I did not know what this Wei-corporate would do to generate revenue, only that it would be a huuuuge company in which I could be the biggest boss who got to boss everyone around, sit in a lavish office and use as many post-its as I wished on a daily basis (I was obsessed with post-its during that time, or actually anything that could stick to a vertical surface…) The fact that I do not know what any of my imaginary or real-life-still-non-existent companies/projects are going to be about has always been a problem (which is why I had set aim on climbing the corporate ladder instead). Therefore, I am so glad that I took this course.
From already the first two lectures, I gained a very valuable insight into what entrepreneurship is really all about, and most importantly, how the process of an idea generation is “supposed to” be like. I thought, “now I could actually come up with a decent idea, or any idea at all!”. I was relieved. And throughout the course, not only did I get a good foundation to generate potential ideas but I also learned more thoroughly about the more difficult and roll-up-your-sleeves necessities for creating further value with whichever idea I would come up with in the future. Such neccessities include e.g. pitching, finding investors, writing a business plan, and so on. I had almost no idea about such things before and had only heard of these terms in very entreprenurial-lingo, meaning that I did not get much of what people were talking about at all. But having done the more theoretical part (what is x, y and z?) as well as the practical part (attending events, idea sketches, pitching in class), I feel more confident and pro now when it comes to entrepreneurship. Nowdays, whenever a friend or acquintance says “I wanna start my own company”, I go and think very enthusiatiscally: “Oh, I really know how you can do that! Maybe I could too!” instead of the good old “… …. This is off-limits area for me.”
And entrepreneurship for me is about making the world a better and more efficient place, and then create more value and make the idea, company or organisation grow. It is also about starting small and getting the chance to be creative and do and shape something that you feel 110% passionate about, like the fashion-loving ladies at Sthlm Tech Meetup who started My Closet Room, or the outdoors-enthusiastic college kids who wanted to plant trees through selling t-shirts. It’s not always about making big bucks, although it is a very nice bonus as well as necessity that comes along with a successful entrepreneurial practice.
Furthermore, another thing that I learned was the importance of a great business partner or business team. I feel really lucky to have found my team members (Go Dreamgineering!) Danny, Peter, Raquel and Lenny. They are smart, down to earth, reliable and fun to be with, as well as people I could see myself working with in the future, and why not for a startup 🙂 But no one can achieve greatness on their own, something I have learned the hard way. You have to be in a team with people you click with, the marriage and soulmates type of relationship, but applied to a platonic business context. You have to be able to lead the team as well, even though you are not the official leader. This means being able to assess the team members’ different strengths and personalities, and bringing them together in a perfect symphony… Yay! And if I ever start the WeiWei Company, you bet that there will be no bossing around.
Lastly…well, lastly, I feel that I need to stop writing and start doing things to keep my learning curve growing.
