Yes friends success takes time at least it takes more than we think.
Of course there are ways that can help you finish projects fast; but for big success you will need to spend years not months.
You may have a clear cut and a well defined market. You may also have research data showing a need for your product in the market. But your idea may not be scalable. If you want to create something big, scale is important.
In addition to finding an idea which is scalable; there are others areas where your time will be invested. Let us explore.
Time to find direction
Flickr came out of an online gaming start-up that turned out to be a tool to share photos on the web. Nokia, leading Mobile Phone Company started life as a pulp mill back in 1860s. In 21st century things have become faster still some time is required to find direction.
37signals started as a web development outfit before their transition into the creator of popular Basecamp and other web-based apps.
Wikipedia started in 2001 as a complimentary project to Nupedia, an expert-written online encyclopedia. It later outgrew Nupedia and became huge.
These are bigger examples which are out there in the public; but if you look closer and explore you will realize that many successful companies transition into a different form over many years.
Time to find critical mass
Facebook in 2004 with 1 million users was a promising start up. It crossed 10 million users in 2006. It took another 4 years or so to become world’s largest social network ever at 500million+ active users.
Google also took more than 8 years for an IPO after it originated as a research project. It achieved numbers by providing better search results than competitors and also by becoming search partner of Yahoo and other giants. Its partnerships with Yahoo ran till February 2004 after which Yahoo choose to go on its own.
Time to get out of experimentation mode
Some of the big projects in tech world start out of the founder’s dorm room (Facebook, Dell) or side projects working days in a full-time job.
Young entrepreneurs indulge in experiments thinking that age is on their side. Some of them find something close to their heart soon. For others, experimentation phase continues. At some point wannabe entrepreneurs (young and old) need to stop and find something which they can devote most of their time and energy on. Finding something like this may take time.
So the years creating something big are spent;
- Finding the killer product idea that customers want (not need), one that is scalable
- Founder/s making sure that the idea is worth committing their time and energy
- Working on growing and taking the product/service to the next level
No need to despair all you wannabe entrepreneurs or those who have just started on their entrepreneurial journey. The fruit of your labor will be worth it. Be sure if you stick through; it will not be all work. The journey will find you crossing some pleasant milestones – where you will have opportunity to party. Though such instances will be less initially and more as your grow in years and size.
Have you already built a start up? What was it like during growing years? How many years since the seeds of your idea were sown first? Share in comments and help others.
To our success.
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