Thorsons
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This edition published by Thorsons 2016
FIRST EDITION
© Fraser Doherty 2016
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Source ISBN: 9780008196684
Ebook Edition © August 2016 ISBN: 9780008196721
Version: 2016-07-19
There are only two people that I need truly to thank for making my career as an entrepreneur a possibility. As a boy, I pitched thousands of business ideas to them. As a teenager, they patiently listened as I explained yet another hare-brained concept after another.
They never said ‘no’ and they never discouraged me. Never pressured me to walk a more familiar path and always let me seek out what I thought I was born to do.
All along the way, they did everything they could to make my dreams a reality. Waking up at 4am to drive me to the fruit market on a Monday. Or the farmers’ market at the weekends. Or to a supermarket pitch far out of town. They stuck labels onto jars, served customers behind the stall and mucked in at the office.
They were there to lift my spirits when almost every one of my ideas failed, and to celebrate when a few of them worked. They were even willing to make an appearance on Korean TV, all to support their exhausting son.
I couldn’t have done any of it without you, Mum and Dad.
CONTENTS
Foreword – The 48-Hour Start-Up Philosophy
3 A Journey of a Thousand Miles …
9 Resources, Links, Tools, Places to Go, Things to Read
Depending on the type of business you are hoping to start, doing so on a weekend may or may not be practical; for example, if you rely on getting materials from suppliers they may only be open on weekdays. To keep it simple, I have written 48-Hour Start-Up over the course of Day 1 and Day 2. It’s up to you whether you do yours during the week or at the weekend.
FOREWORD
THE 48-HOUR START-UP PHILOSOPHY
For anyone with a dream to start up on their own, there are endless airport bookshops filled with ‘build a billion-dollar company’ manuals. But what if your dream isn’t to build the next Apple? What if your dream is more … realistic?
For many of us, the most important thing that we are searching for in life is freedom. Freedom from the monotony of jobs we hate. Freedom to make a living doing something we love, to work the hours we want to work and to do business in whatever way feels right to us.
For me, starting a business to get rich somewhat misses the point. The adventure that I have had in growing my business – the fun I have had, people I’ve met and places I’ve visited – are the things that I treasure more than the material possessions I’ve been able to buy.
The idea that starting a business can be your route to freedom and adventure – to doing what you were born to do – can, for some people, be a slightly overwhelming prospect. A lot of people labour over their ideas, scheming and planning for years on end – with a worry that their idea isn’t quite right yet, that maybe they need to do more market research to be completely sure that it won’t be a total flop.
More than anything, this fear of failure stops people from pursuing their dreams. We hold ourselves back from what we deserve in