Gambling, drug addiction, alcohol addiction ... start-up dependence?

Destructive behavior manifests itself in different forms. About 10 years ago they started talking about gambling, as an addiction, close to drug addiction and alcoholism. Year 5 discusses dependence on email, on blogs and chats. That is, you can depend not only on the chemical effects on the body.

I predict the emergence of a new addiction: start-up dependence. And I have, if not numerous, but examples.

As you know, the first stage of creating a startup: poor and difficult time, no money, a lot of work. But there is euphoria, there is concentration, there is a complete capture of attention, there are dreams of the future. These feelings are very strong. So, if the feeling of euphoria comes to the fore, if dreams are stronger than a sober look at things, then start-up dependence may occur.

Example 1

One familiar with a friend organized their Internet company for parental money. The father of one bought a server, rented an office, paid for a wide channel on the Internet. What was planned? Hosting, local informational mega-portal, sale of SMS messages, creation of flash games. The last friend and his friend turned out to be the most promising. The guys have been learning flash games for 3 months. Flash itself has not yet been studied.
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At first, I thought that before me were banal loafers and players, but when I spoke with them, I became convinced of something else. The guys wrote business plans, communicated with freelancers, estimated the amount of work. Everything is pretty thought out. With me discussed methods of site promotion. We listened carefully, made reasonable conclusions. I even envied the guys.

A couple of months passed, I again met with the guys. They had a new game idea, a new startup and a business plan. Again, everything is serious, again, everything is not stupid.

- And what about the last idea? - I ask.
- With that? Nothing, everything is fine.
- Do you implement it?
- No, we have a new idea.

Then there was a conversation about a new idea. They didn’t give up the previous idea, I just wanted to start everything from the beginning. After another couple of months, everything happened again.

Six months later, my father took the office and server. The guys again a new idea.

Diagnosis

The euphoria of waiting for future success turned out to be stronger than the success itself. Destructive behavior manifested itself in the over-spending of other people's funds, in spoiled relations with relatives and potential partners.

Example 2

I made a website about the nightlife of Tver. There were customers on a similar site about cafes and restaurants. Site made, passed. The site owners in the business are disappointed. They gave in support of a good man. About this man and will be discussed.

He was engaged in accounting to order. Took up an extra business with enthusiasm. He took off his office more, hired people. Losses began to grow. And although both the owners and I warned him that it was necessary to look for incomes, and not expenses, he stubbornly invested money. When they ran out of their own, he began to invest in other people - an accountant after all.

When things were obviously bad, he took a desperate step: he decided to release a glossy magazine in parallel with the site. I found investors for this business, even advertisers of some kind. Again we warned him - prepare for failure, prepare investors for this. As a result, he was owed 5 million rubles. Sold the apartment, moved out of the office, somehow interrupted now by the accounting department, paying off debts.

As it turned out later, the accountant was not very good either.

Diagnosis

Having failed to cope with the business, the patient took up the business more difficult. But it would be necessary the other way around: first, fix it here, and then take on more complicated things.

Another patient ignored the creative part, focusing on the organizational. Dreams of profits in the future made us forget about the break-even in the present.

Example 3 from personal experience

About 10 years ago I had a difficult period: little money, discord with the first wife, health problems of a child. And somehow I suddenly came up with the idea: to make a designer of different puzzles of the Rubik's cube type. The idea is that there are several crosses, 5 pieces according to the number of possible regular polyhedrons. On these crosses you can collect different puzzles: cubes, pyramids, octahedrons and others.

So, then I loaded myself with hard but interesting brainwork. I began to recount all possible variants in my mind, and in my mind to figure out how these puzzles can be arranged. There were a lot of options and I limited myself to some basic models, which also turned out to be quite a few.

For three days I lived by inertia and thought hard. And I felt very well, because it was interesting to me, although I understood perfectly well the futility of the idea. Neither was it possible to adjust the production of the designer, nor to find buyers, nor to raise capital at that time. But enjoyed it.

At some point I suddenly realized that everything I wanted was already invented. And he felt incredible fatigue. Irritability, nervousness, some kind of hopelessness, just like a heavy hangover. Even dry is the same.

Then I realized how dangerous it is to indulge my mental pleasures, and how important it is to control and direct my thought.

How to avoid start-up dependence?

Do not get stuck at one stage

The development of any project goes through different stages:
- the emergence of ideas;
- initial development;
- internal testing;
- create a beta version;
- open testing;
- monetization;
- the organization of jobs;
- raising capital ...

At each stage changes occur in the organization. These changes need to prepare. And when the time comes, then take the new rules of the game.

Don't get stuck on one side of the question.

In addition to creativity, there are issues of accounting, legal. Finance should not only earn, but also properly spend. If the business is growing, then you need to hire people and share powers. Business has many sides, and all of them are important.

In the IT field, brain capacity is very high, but you need to think differently, and always prepare for changes.

What is a startup?

A startup is a business that has been managed to be raised from scratch. Startup time: from the moment when there is nothing but ideas and enthusiasm, until the moment when the money went when the idea turned into a brand. Then it's just a business.

So, if after a moment of enthusiasm the moment of business has not come, then this is not a startup at all, but so is pastime. Jamming at the moment of a startup is start-up dependence. This is a destructive state, avoid it.

Licenses

As an illustration, a picture of the Dutch painter Wall Yang "Revelers". When copying and publishing an article, please refer to the authorship (Vadim Galkin) and my personal page .