Ignore the Real World: Blogging the Start Up Experience

Posted on 21. Jun, 2010 by refe in STRATEGY

“That would never work in the real world.” You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea.

This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose. The only things that win are what people already know and do, even if those things are flawed and inefficient.

Scratch the surface and you’ll find that these “real world” inhabitants are filled with pessimism and despair. They expect fresh concepts to fail. They assume society isn’t ready for or capable of change.

Don’t believe them. That world may be real for them, but it doesn’t mean you have to live in it.

That’s an excerpt from the first chapter of Rework by the founders of 37signals. The message hits close to home for me right now, so I thought I’d share it with all of you.

I’m currently in the process of starting up a new business. In the real world, neither my partner nor I are in a great place to be risking it all on a new venture. Erik runs a music discovery service, and works as an internet marketer by day. I have two young kids, a full-time job as a headhunter and a music industry blog to generate quality content for each day. We’re busy, we’re already over-committed, and resources are scarce.

In the real world, we should both be heads-down at a cubicle somewhere trying to ‘focus on our careers.’ Instead, we’re seizing every spare minute to pour our time, energy and our best ideas into this project.

Why am I telling you this? Because I believe that my experiences starting a new business are not too far removed from many of your experiences starting a career in music. Our venture also depends on many of the same factors that your careers depend on – namely that listeners and consumers will continue to value the music experience.

I’m going to try to blog the start up process from beginning to end, and well beyond. Everything I learn, you’ll learn. Every mistake I make will be one you won’t have to. My hope is that there will be something for everybody to take a way and apply to your own endeavors.

The first installment is simple: if you have a vision for your life and your career, don’t wait for permission. Get started now. Keep your day job, but make time to work towards your goal every single day. If I can do it in my situation – and I suppose only time will tell – anybody can do it.

Erik and I have the advantage of an idea that we truly believe in. We’ve discovered a real need in the music industry that no one is currently meeting with any kind of success, and we plan to fill it. We even have a few ideas on how we’re gong to do it.

But that’s outside the scope of this first post. For now, I’ll leave you with another short excerpt from Rework:

The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.

Does this resonate with any of you? Are any of you in a similar place? I’d love to get your feedback.

Share it if you like it:

Tags: business, rework, starting up

15 Responses to “Ignore the Real World: Blogging the Start Up Experience”

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21. Jun, 2010

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Refe Tuma, Gustavo Carvalho. Gustavo Carvalho said: Ignore the Real World: Blogging the Start Up Experience: “That would never work in the real world.” You he… http://bit.ly/dbyTLi [...]
Jen Sjolund

21. Jun, 2010

Thanks for sharing, and planning to share, your experiences here! It DOES resonate to me as an artist… which makes sense, we are both creators!
Aidan Nulman

21. Jun, 2010

I hate to be all self-promotional, but I’ve actually been doing the same over at http://youphonics.posterous.com!

Can’t wait to learn from your experiences, and hopefully have something to offer you’se guys
- refe
  
  21. Jun, 2010
  
  I love it! The more I find out about you the more I think we’ll be talking a lot more in the future.
  - Aidan
    
    22. Jun, 2010
    
    Pardon the lack of meaningful response-to-your-response, but…
    
    Woot.
Ellen S

22. Jun, 2010

I’m about to embark on a venture with a filmmaker friend, so I’ll be following along with you, and keeping that “justification for not trying” as far from our attitudes as possible. Looks like I’ll be following Aidan’s blog, too! Great info over there already, including the crucial “delegate not-me-specific tasks.”
Brian Sapp

22. Jun, 2010

This is great Refe.
I probably could have used you a year ago…I am a former artist who works in the industry (day job is music clearance for film/tv/advertising) and recently founded the music discovery site http://www.fuzzedout.com (5 weeks old) on the side. I made a couple mistakes along the way for Fuzzedout, primarily thinking I could do many tasks myself that I wasn’t qualified to do, like design and development of the website. I wasted a lot of time on it until I gave in and hired the WRONG people to do it which wasted me more time and money. I eventually hired the right people but it was a learning process.
It will be interesting to see how starting a business is different for two founders verses one founder (my experience). During my artist days in a band, having multiple inputs could actually be more detrimental to the decision process, but as the sole founder it can get lonely. You have to make every decision and don’t have much feedback until it’s tested with users. Your friends become your focus group, but at the same time you have to learn what advice to ignore by having a very strong vision of what the product should be.
My only advice is do a lot of due diligence before you hire anyone, the web is a murky place for employment.
- refe
  
  22. Jun, 2010
  
  Absolutely. Our adventures in securing a developer will definitely be the subject of an upcoming post
Hubert "GAM" Sawyers III

22. Jun, 2010

This reminds me of the recent post on Lateral Action: http://lateralaction.com/articles/sell-your-art/

As someone that is currently sacrificing a stable income, health benefits and the like to pursue business ventures that I passionate about, I definitely would like to encourage you to continue. I know it will be be. I know there are many days I have where I feel “the pressure.”

I look forward to reading about your entrepreneurial journey, even if you find you are too spread out to write. I will imagine you are getting things done. When my blog goes quiet, it usually means I’m busy with other work.

Best wishes, Refe. Keep the faith!
Will

22. Jun, 2010

Cambrian House which created a crowdsourcing platform for ideas basically failed because of the lack of implementation of any of the idea. Then once the product or service is created you have to sell it, people have to want it and want to pay for it. So good luck! I love how they (REWORK) created a product THEY needed rather than looking at the market, which goes against conventional wisdom.
Brenda K of The Panache Orchestra

22. Jun, 2010

THANK YOU for telling us this, Refe! I can always use some inspiration and encouragement, particularly when it pertains to ignoring reality and trying to make a viable go of it with something out of the “real world” box. I love your opening and closing quotes, and In fact, I have been wondering where the line of demarcation falls between selectively ignoring reality and being delusional as far as setting my expectations for results with marketing my original project, The Panache Orchestra. I long ago lost interest in a “real world”, or “Plan B” career, and for that matter, my former career as a professional side player also, so the stakes are high. Thanks also for the temperate approach of keeping the day job but making daily progress on the new venture.

Best of luck with your new venture!

Brenda K
@PanacheBrendaK
Jon Ostrow

28. Jun, 2010

This is a great Idea Refe! My partner and I have been talking about doing something similar through a newsletter, essentially allowing people to follow our journey. I think this exercise will be a great learning experience for us all, and I look forward to reading and providing whatever feedback that I can throughout your own personal journey. Good Luck!

Jon O
ryanve

01. Jul, 2010

Rework sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing that.
Udhara de Silva

14. Jul, 2010

Love the article, Refe. I’ve just graduated from university in Sydney, Australia and moving to London in 2 weeks to develop my songwriting/music production career. Been getting “get back to the real world” comments left and right, as I’m going with literally a couple of tshirts and jeans, a macbook and some recording gear. Let’s see how this goes.

But yeah, what you wrote was great in that it reminded me I’m not the only one walking a tightrope over a windy 3000m gorge here… I have a pretty good feeling we’ll both make it to the other side

Udhara de Silva
@udhara
Katie

05. Aug, 2010

I absolutely love this post. It is very inspiring and very true. I am currently tying to start a music company too. I’m a grad student and my business partner has a demanding day job. Most people seem to think we’re crazy.

I would much rather try and end up proving them right than listen to the skeptics and never try. Best of luck to you, I look forward to reading more.