Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

Inception

This is a self rant. I tried as much as possible, albeit lazily, to make the presentation of my thoughts cohesive but let’s see how well that worked out. If it turns out bad, blame Dance Monkey.

Getting Ready

My journey as a software developer began professionally roughly 6 months ago thanks to my internship :D and I have gotten my fair share of getting offers to work with someone on one cool idea that is going to shake up the eCommerce or Social Media industry and well we know how it goes, you get offered equity and some small cash if you are lucky and sometimes you are advised to look at the long time benefits of “pioneering” an existing platform but here in Africa.

Rejecting these offers is all good until it is a family member or someone that you look up to in a way and you are paced in a difficult spot. You don’t know how best to present the reasons why you are saying no and it looks like a betrayal of trust and you somehow have the light burden of thinking that you let someone down. This worsens if it someone you see every day or somehow can’t ignore their presence but hang on.

The Canvas

You know what? It is fine to have ideas and paint the future bright and colourful but remember that you are the only one seeing that “unique” future and that you are not the only person that has this type of dream, there are thousands and I daresay millions with an idea that looks exactly like yours so what is going to make yours stand out and worth pursuing?

That is if you think I don’t have my fair share of million dollars app or business idea and I want to sit in the corporate world hoping to work my ass off for some billionaire employer. At my workplace, I have ideas almost every week and I am sure they miss me talking to them about such ideas.

The Palette

So what is going to make me drop my ideas for yours? Well, to know if you are serious, Money!!! Yup, it is a Money Driven Development. Or to be professional the funding. Something has to continually oil the gears. There has to be a sense of financial security from one end which I don’t have at the moment.

That is what you are going to fall back on when it doesn’t work out at some point. Nobody, at least that I know of, wants to work in a startup for 6 months and when it doesn’t work out starts to complain he doesn’t have one money or something, come off it my friend, you are talking in the rubbish.

Painting the Story

Another thing is that a good number of these founders think an Uber or YouTube clone can be ready in 3 months and they can be ready to launch by the 4th quarter and bam in a year or two you are rocking in the Maldives or some Caribbean resort, ahh dreams are nice and wonderful.

Apart from trying to convince people to work with you, how are you going to push your product and drive market adoption without needing to involve people at one point or the other? And if you are going to involve people, they are not going to work for free and would need some sort of compensation too.

The Finishing

And yes, there are founders out there who didn’t have a single dime on them to start their business but somehow they got people to work with them and now they are role models but what kept the people going is the concept of a shared vision. This is what gives the people around you the energy to keep going against all odds but let’s be honest it takes someone that is in your circle to have this kind of synergy.

Subtle Details

I believe it is possible to work in the corporate world and you get to live the life you have dreamed of. I believe that it is possible to get someone you don’t know to work on a project for free but it takes work and a lot of convincing to do so. This is easier if there is a shared burden.

Art Exhibition

So yeah it is amazing to have ideas and all but you need money to get it running if you don’t have it try to get it. Blessings!