I’ve always been full of big, sweeping, well-intentioned, overly-inspired ideas — a great starting point for someone who has wanted to have her own business since birth. But all of my ideas — accessory line, travel site, agency, production house, restaurant, cool shit shop, etc — have been foiled simply by my lack of understanding how to start a start-up.
Polynate is my turning point. I see it as a resource for people like me who want to start something of their own but aren’t sure where to start. How do you decide which steps to take first? What’s the most efficient order of operations? Does it matter in the end, or is the whole point to just jump in and go for it? What happens when you hit walls or criticism or rock bottom? How do you stay inspired and motivated when shit gets tough and all you have is your idea and yourself? Do you forge ahead or quit while you’re ahead?
Such questions have been the undoing of me. I have the starry-eyed dreamer’s vision of how things will be once the business of starting is over and my idea is a functional, living thing existing in the world. I have an old-fashioned, hard-knocks work ethic that has served me — but mainly my employers — well. I have the ability to think outside the box and come up with unusual solutions in tight situations. But surpassing the paralyzing fears of what comes next and how to get there is something I have yet to figure out. So here we are.
My goal is to do it this time. For real. To take this idea knocking around in my head and to nurture it into what I believe could be a wealth of practical information and useful insight into the nuts and bolts of starting and running a business from the ground up, as told by those who have done it before.
I don’t know where this road will lead, what turns it’ll take, or how steep the curves will be, but I’m willing to find out. What’s more, I’d like your company along the way. It could be wildly exciting or horribly tedious — I don’t know. The point is to just find the fuck out. My only promise is that I will share with you the process, the struggle, the hustle, the highs, the walls, the breakthroughs, and hopefully the few wins I come across. And I’ll do that as honestly and regularly as possible.
So, lest I waste even more time thinking and less time doing… Let’s GO.
