Here`s an experience I think could be useful to people...

kamolahy

I write a blog about my business starting experiences. I think that one day, when my business is up and running, people will get a chance to see what it took for us to get there and appreciate it.
Here`s an excerpt from the blog that made me immediately think of my friends here at SuN and want to share it. I hope it`s helpful to people.
The blog is at http://creativistblog.wordpress.com
It was called "...on meeting Rich and learning lessons" (different Rich:) Taking
suggestions for starting a business is often a bitter, “no duh”
experience. You can scour the internet as long as you want to for
business advice, but you’ll rarely find something unique or
revolutionary. I’ve even sat down with entrepreneurs or with investors
who told me things that were “valuable”, but generic and kind of
obvious. That’s a good thing, because you can know that the practices
for starting a business don’t change too drastically. You can stay
behind the trends and adapt fast enough if the core values of what
makes a business happen rest in their places.I could summarize up for you right now exactly what they will tell you. Things like this:Don’t try starting a business alone, you won’t be successful.Make sure you have enough money.Know your market, and know the need. Don’t go for something that’s TOO niche.Write a through business plan so you can really test your ideas.Make sure you hire professionals to fill the gaps that you can’t.so on and so forth… it’s pretty run of the mill small business advice.In fact, it begins to be so much repetition that I often wonder what
new gems of information will keep me motivated when the same old has
ceased to deliver.Well, a couple of weeks ago I met with Rich. Rich is like me in some
ways, and not in others. He’s like me in that he works from home. He’s
like me in that he’s ambitious and entrepreneurial. He’s like me in
that he’s dead set on doing what he wants to do, despite what the world
will tell you is prudent to do. I like that.Rich isn’t like me in that he’s a coding geek. He’s exactly the opposite of me. He’s exactly what I need.Unlucky for me, I can’t have Rich on my side. He’s as deep in the
trenches as anyone could be with current projects. In a perfect world,
a guy like him would really help make Creativist happen. I don’t just
need a programmer. I need a programmer with visionary eyes, a positive
attitude, and an undying passion for making things happen.Despite my selfish lamentations over not having a guy like Rich, I
do have a lot of good that comes from my meeting with him, and that’s
the point of this entry. I got together with Rich and we talked shop
for awhile. It was an eye opening experience because he’s the first
programmer/entrepreneur I have spoken to. He had ideas that were from a
perspective one only gains from doing things and gaining experience.As I left Rich’s apartment invigorated from our  meeting I thought
to myself, “I could read a billion articles and listen to every podcast
out there for advice, but I just got everything I needed by talking to
someone just like me“.I guess it doesn’t matter what people know unless you can make it
applicable to yourself. Looking back on my time as a self-made man,
most every single valuable lesson has grown from experience. It has
come out of the “make it happen” moments. It has come from the times I
stepped into a situation so uncomfortable, I just had to deal with it.
This time, I got advice and it was just as valuable… but this time it
was personal and I needed it.One day, some company will be lucky to have Rich… if he’s not in charge of his own that is.