Sailing School for Business Owners
I embarked on the journey of being a business owner in 2015. Back then, I was still working in a day job. Not wanting to risk it all and start a full-fledged business, nor continue doing work where I was remunerated well but didn’t find meaningful, I thought the middle ground was to do a franchise business.
While still on the day job, I collaborated with some partners to do my first franchise business in 2015 and another franchise business in 2016.
Having gone through that process, I do not recommend it to anyone. Only do this if you have a high threshold for pain and you’re young, scrappy and hungry.
To alleviate some of that pain, I jokingly called it my “work-after-work”. Oh your work day is done? How about another five hour hustle to cap it off nicely?
But it’s not funny at all and the joke’s on me.
And I am not throwin’ away my shot
I am not throwin’ away my shot
Hey yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwin’ away my shot- My Shot, Alexander Hamilton Musical
Set Sail
The learning was useful and the returns were good, but there are inherent limitations to the franchise business model. What those limitations are is a tale for another time, which I won’t want to elaborate here. Having cut my teeth running through the process of collaborating on two franchise businesses, it was an opportune time to unfurl my sails and take on the ocean.
There was some trepidation about embarking on such a journey. Some of the feelings at that moment in time was captured in a poem I wrote. Pardon the amateur piece of work — it was the best way I knew to express the fear and excitement.
Together with some partners, I co-founded Boulder Movement in 2017. Most people my age venture into the technology space, because of how scalable such businesses can be. Their products can be delivered to anyone across the world at low marginal costs over the internet.
Undoubtedly, it was foolhardy of me to go into the brick-and-mortar space. Were there some loose screws in my head? You bet.
All those admonitions well-meaning people warn you about the high costs, risks, headaches and heartaches? They are real.
Sailing Round in Circles
There were some notable wins in the first year of the business. The biggest win of all was that we created something from nothing. Starting from a decrepit hole-in-the-wall, the space was transformed into an awesome bouldering gym. All things considered, the first year was a breeze.
But alas, the biggest win is also only merely that. That something stands for nothing if we aren’t gaining traction fast enough and if the compass is not pointing in the right direction. Some days only saw so few customers that we could almost hear the the seagulls flying past and cawing above.
We rolled out new initiatives which weren’t well thought out, only to quickly pare them back when they resulted in unintended consequences. We wanted to sail across the ocean quickly by taking short cuts, only to realise that we’ve been drawn into the devious Bermuda triangle, doomed to crash upon some atoll. Quick wins are worth much less than durable advantages.
While things looked rosy on the surface, beneath that veneer things were starting to unravel. Storm clouds gathered overhead. The narrative turned against me and I unwittingly became the villain. I had started out with the best intentions. But you know what they say about the road to hell being paved with the best intentions.
You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
- Harvey Dent, Batman: The Dark Knight
My employees criticised for not being a good mentor in business lines I had little idea about, and that I didn’t grow the company fast enough to match their aspirations.
Some customers criticised me for my noob gym, avant-garde pricing (this is the kindest way I know how to put this — believe me when I say I’ve heard worse) and the small space. Regardless of whether the criticism was stemming from their own insecurities and invalid, or if there was some kernel of truth and therefore valid, the fact of the matter is that their criticism was merciless.
My shareholders criticised me for not parting the Red Sea and leading them to the Promised Land on Mount Nebo.
Other business owners criticised me for being an unaspiring bean counter who merely manages by numbers, that I’m sailing without a feel for the winds or the tides.
When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown ’em outAnother round of bullets hits my skin
Well, fire away ’cause today, I won’t let the shame sink in- This Is Me, Keala Settle, The Greatest Showman Ensemble
The ship I’ve built was falling apart around me. The lapping waters were up to my neck now and I was gasping for air. I felt like I was drowning and sought solace in the only oasis I knew — books.
When he was ten his father split, full of it, debt-ridden
Two years later, see Alex and his mother bed-ridden
Half-dead sittin’ in their own sick, the scent thickAnd Alex got better but his mother went quick
Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide
Left him with nothin’ but ruined pride, something new inside
A voice saying, “Alex, you gotta fend for yourself”He started retreatin’ and readin’ every treatise on the shelf
- Alexander Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton Musical
Things were broken and they needed to be fixed. Through a process of introspection, I realised that everything relating to the business starts and ends with me. It had become of paramount importance that I unlearned everything I thought I knew and start from the nuts and bolts.
I had to accept that I’m not a worthy seaman. And so I set out to hone the most difficult CEO skill.
Catching the Wind in Your Sails
The world around me was changing and I had to change too, or be left behind. The old and tired had to make way for the new and energetic. The jaded and unwilling had to make way for the galvanised and willing.
After the process of creative destruction, new shoots emerge. Technology was making it ever easier to run a business. Like the flip side of a coin, is my main weakness also my main strength? I needed to quit mopping and start leveraging my strengths. I had to scale beyond the pre-conceived limitations in my head.
Do you walk in the valley of kings?
Do you walk in the shadow of men
Who sold their lives to a dream?
Do you ponder the manner of things
In the dark?
The dark, the dark, the dark- Glitter & Gold, Barns Courtney
After a reset, the rejuvenated ship can launch off a stable platform. The leakages in the hull have been patched. The engine room is staffed with reliable hands. There are able brains in the bridge, peering out across the choppy seas into the clear horizon.
Like Odysseus sailing with his argonauts across the western sea between Aeaea and the rocks of Scylla, I will listen to but resist the alluring song of the sirens. I am only human and therefore is subject to human weakness. Where I falter, I will use ropes to override my failings and pull myself back from the abyss.
Burn the Ship, Go All In
The winds of change are blustering again in 2021 and we are charting a course for blue oceans.
In 1519 AD, during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, upon landing on the shores, the Spanish commander Hernan Cortes gave the order to burn all the ships. It would have “made sense” for him to retain a ship or two as an escape option. But he knew that the only way to keep himself or his men from quitting is to take the option of retreat off the table. His men would have to conquer or die. History tells us that his men fought ferociously and overpowered the natives, who vastly outnumbered them many times over.
I’m willing to double down and go all in.
