I’ve always been a somewhat proactive person, I always liked to experiment with new ideas, be it with mud, paper clay, cooking, or anything related to computers, although I didn’t really enjoy failure, I wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty and try new stuff.
Due to my personality and circumstances I was drawn into making websites and other types of programs very early. Microsoft Frontpage helped me get something in production before I even knew what production meant. This experience helped me get some small tasks for making some websites for local businesses and associations.
At the time, my hobbies revolved around gaming and online communities where I could also ascend through the ranks just by working on the tech, website, forum, teamspeak, server configuration, etc. I ended up in the highest positions in one of the biggest Counter-Strike communities in Portugal after creating lots of events, solved conflicts and working my ass off to get everybody to enjoy.
With this experience it came the inherent discovery that I really enjoy creating the infrastructure for people to communicate, enjoy their time together.
Fast forwarding to July 2024, it really hit me that I had to make things happen. Normal work as an IC/kind of tech lead has a ceiling to how much I can affect the organization, and the deep desire to stop playing safe and actually build something real has overcome the path of least resistance of being a cog in a machine for 40 years and retire.
I listed all my current goals, body, relationships, financial, knowledge, entrepreneurship, hobbies. Entrepreneurship goals led to trying to generate hundreds of ideas. At that moment I actually realized, ideas are worthless. I wanted to end the year with a defined business to create.
In this journey I followed some advice from youtube people, listened to loads of content while doing chores and so on:
- The diary of a CEO -> very good distribution of advice where usually every episode is with a different expert on a different topic - really good to understand how much we really don’t know about seemingly infinite topics
- Alex Hormozi -> volume trumps perfection, don’t expect to do normal things if you don’t want to be normal, be insane in the amount of work you put in and rest assured that no one is going to bear the same circumstances
- Dan Martell -> make sure you use your time effectively, outsource stuff
- Simon Squibb -> accepting risk is the key, learn the skills, apply them
- Codie Sanchez -> be on the lookout for boring business, learn how they operate
Some books that also influenced me:
- 12 rules for life
- Atomic Habits
- Four Thousand Weeks
- What got you here won’t get you there
- How to win friends and influence other people
- Thinking fast and slow
- How to Talk to Anyone
- Meditations
- Becoming Bulletproof
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Interesting interviewees: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs
But building a business is not about knowledge, it’s about action. This is a recurring theme, everyone knows what should be done, everyone has ideas, few actually move forward.
So on October 2024 I pitched some ideas to my brother and one of them resonated more than the others. An indoor Minigolf course. I’ve seen this idea first in Montpellier, France while visiting a friend, and it was really fun, an indoor activity that we can actually use for strike conversation in a playful environment. These are rare in my city.
On November and onwards I started full throttle:
- Meeting with lawyers for understanding the legal implications
- Meeting with banks for financing
- Visiting every available space online for rent that could work
- Driving around most streets to find any sign of buildings for rent
- Start registering the company
- Requesting prices for everything that I’d need
- Ordering hundreds of things out of aliexpress
- Transforming my living room into a UV room for testing everything
- Building a course at my parents’ place to prove we could make it
- Contacting public services
- Getting more money by freelancing
- Getting references for professionals from cold calling CEOs
- Testing suppliers for merch
- Creating the website and social media
- Taking care of the logo and the brand
- Visiting the indoor minigolf places in Portugal many times
- Taking care of business plans
- Checking how the finances could work and how they compare with other places
Setbacks I didn’t expect prior to getting the place:
- Even the best lawyers may have no idea about licencing spaces, that should be dealt with architects
- Getting banned from instagram for no reason (a few months later they reverted the decision…)
- Lawyers seemingly charging 100€ to help with legal company creation and then, in the end charging a total of about 1500€, with everything included
- An architect taking 2 weeks to analyze a place, which was enough for it to be rented, meaning lost a good business opportunity and still charging 500€ for never delivered work
- Having to call many times the same accounting firm to get something done
- People being actually upset for calling them because they had a sign in a building saying “for rent” (wtf)
- Months to get the legal name approved
- No one answering from the municipality
- Negotiations with places getting backtracked and accusing me that I just wanted a “one-sided” deal when I was just clarifying what the other person has agreed to so far
- Places that are in no condition to start a business (one had some toilets in the first floor, but there were no stairs, just a stepladder)
- People that tell you they will call you back and never do
- Alibaba suppliers taking 100+ messages back and forth to get something done
Finally, while dining with people from Refood, one mentioned that there may be one space for rent near Leiria. I went there and in fact, it wasn’t on the website.
I checked it out and moved forward as soon as I could. Less due diligence than what I wanted, but the reality is that there isn’t much time to do that. I checked the place with another architect and it seemed feasible.
Now with the place, it’s a race, every day we’re at a loss.
Knowing this, one thing is apparent, no one seems to have a sense of urgency unless they have businesses of their own.
Municipality taking 11 days (with some pressure) just to allow me to check something related to the building. So I had to go there, fill out a form with someone that almost had a breakdown trying to submit a for, to then wait 11 days so they can tell me I can go there again see the files.
I went there 11 days later, no one seemed to know what I was talking about, at one moment I had 4 people going over the request, one being the one that took my request 11 days prior, who suggested that I make another request with a more limited scope. Then they started discussing portuguese interpretation because they told me that I wasn’t allowed, only the architect, when I had written, that in my absence the architect can check it. Then they couldn’t turn on the computer. Then they didn’t want me to give the files because there were too many and it would be “too many megabytes”. But finally took the request to send me some digital copies of some of the files, that I don’t know yet the price, nor I have the files. 5 days later, no progress.
The architect ignored my questions a total of 6 times of the course of 16 days. Made the whole process dependent on these requests which caused a delay of 12 days. 2 months later after requesting estimates, still nothing.
Suppliers that need to be constantly remembered that I still need something done.
…
One thing is certain, I wasn’t expecting to be dealing with so many “small” things. Organized some people to help me out in a few weekends, but it turns out that that means I’ll be cleaning piss in urinols at midnight. Buying supplies for them, organizing lunch, being until 2am with a friend making some electrical installations, buying so many small things, figuring out what to do when you make your wood suppliers go out of stock.
So many things that I didn’t give a second thought on who and how it was done… sound systems, spending a day with a plumber dealing with literal shit to unclog a pump, installing cameras, dealing with wifi, alarm, social media, replying to potential clients, scheduling meetings with influential people, building decoration, transporting 3m+ stuff, dealing with people that expect you to be in 2 places at once, unloading material, buying tools and equipment, getting access to wholesale, banks, accounting, orders, planning the space, merch, regulations, public entities.
One thing is certain, Angela Duckworth and Codie get it right: Grit. Be prepared to have it or develop it, otherwise it’s just to easy to just give up.
16h work days. That’s my life right now. Heading off to the business now, hoping to sharing more soon.