Starting a Business
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about starting businesses, helping people start businesses, and trying to start my own.
When I was 7 years old I started my first business – “Loans Incorporated” – it went like this….
I never got an allowance, but for some reason I got an obscene amount of lunch money, $3 dollars a day. My Persian Jewish father Nuri Nazar seemed to be overly concerned that I should buy the best lunch food the cafeteria could offer, and woefully under concerned that I should have a fixed allowance to budget.
So being the toddler capitalist I was, I would loan out $2.00 a day to my classmates and have them sign a sample contract I drafted up. (I wish i still had one of those original handwritten ones). In return my classmates had to give me back $0.25 the next day plus my two dollars. I really had no idea at the time that I was teaching myself about finance and getting a better return compounded yearly than the Google IPO.
The first few weeks were so successful that I remember when my friends Sammy, Jack, and Hootan were at my house, I put thumbnail tacks on different parts of my World Map, telling them all the locations we were going to open up Loans Incorporated Branches. (Hootan started crying because he said he was supposed to go into the family jewelry business).
However, as fate would have it, my plans were dashed when the principal had to get in the middle of a dispute between a “customer” not paying me back (I think her name was Jenny). Who knew loan sharking was illegal.
When all was said and done though, I did start my first business in the 2nd grade. And “starting” is 90% of the battle in my mind.
Most business don’t fail because they fail… they fail because they were never started. If I had a nickel for every time someone told me “I had that idea first”, I could re-capitalize Loans Incorporated and would have completely self financed docstoc.
My strong advice – stop talking and get in the game. I tried to put my thoughts in a bitting and humorous presentation. So here is my advice on Mistakes People Make Before Starting a New Business.
Mistakes People Make Before Starting a New Business – Get more Creative Writing
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:11 am
is this the first comment to your first ever blog post?
July 2, 2008. remember the day.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:12 am
AND….you managed to work the word douche into the post. well done.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:13 am
Howdy;
Yeah, nice point … and great overview with your slide.
Thanks for this.
Today, i read a other great Blogpost like yours, about
“Who Your Startup Needs” -> http://twurl.nl/fela1p
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 am
Excellent first blog post, Jason. What a cracker with the slide pack.
I started blogging in April 2006 as a way to promote my first startup and used to proudly display “Blogger” on my business cards. Now blogs at three different locations.
Running a startup is no doubt challenging. Look forward to further engagement
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:55 am
Hi Jason.. Wow… your thoughts are very clear. I enjoyed reading. And you are right I should not doubt myself. Thank you.
Oh… currently, I am working on http://www.springnote.com. If you have time take a look and let me know what you think.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:29 am
It is time Gentiles started their own National Reserve Bank and their own news media companies. Let us see what will happen to the boasting j*ws
Reserve Banks should have food or fuel reserves to be called Reserve Bank. The way the Federal reserve bank is run it is essentially a printing press that issues worthless pieces of paper.
The problem is paper tokens has value if the issuer has food / fuel reserve to redeem the paper tokens.
Go figure the j*wish financial scam….. If only j*wish owned internet companies are succeeding then there is something terribly wrong.
When people find out the scam they will want to punish the scamsters but it will be difficult to identify who is the good j*w and the bad j*w and all j*ws will suffer.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:41 am
thanks for that