xavi colomer's blog

An essay on young entrepreneurship in less 1000 words.

This post is a bit special as it marks the beginning of a new era in my life. Since I have the use of reason, I always wanted to own a business. It is not the fact of making money (well, maybe… ) but for having an idea and develop it, make it grow, and if possible to be make it really useful for people.

It is an exercise in maturity and analysis of my current situation, a reflection to find out what I really want in my life, and I will start with an analysis of my aptitudes.

Weaknesses

Self-distrust

This is perhaps one of my worst attributes today, and I will invest more time to rectify it. If I have a company and I want to bring it forward I will have to be firm and tough most of the time, otherwise, if people see me weak, that weakness can be spread to my colleagues and even can pave the way to my competitors.

Resolution: (already started) I decided to create small projects (proof of concept) in my current company and I made presentations to overcome like public speaking fear and the truth is working.

Responsibility

The easiest position in any job is to do not carry any responsibility. Being on the sidelines and let others take responsibility can be comfortable, but in any business (in fact like in any social group , human or animal) there is a hierarchy, and people who are not involved rarely being heard or taken into opinion seriously.

I think it’s important that people who are above (hierarchically speaking) should see that you are able to take responsibility, this becomes trust. Although it may happen in some cases these people may feel threatened.

Resolution: Start to assume more responsibility, admit mistakes, listen to people with more experience and rectify if necessary

Leadership

I do not think many people have this ability, and many people with this skill not often uses it. Since I have memory I always have created music groups, I have organized parties, dinners and even I tried to create a company with some friends. But doing an analysis of why some of these initiatives came bad is quite clear now, my weakness lies not in fact to encourage people to do something but keep them excited and motivated to carry out and this is also part of leadership.

Resolution: Get support from people you trust, and learn to delegate. I cannot do everything on my own

Fitness and physical appearance

“mens sana in corpore sano” if tomorrow I want to have my own business, have employees and learn to survive in difficult times, my body must let me do that, otherwise I’ll be trying to build an empire on a castle of cards.

Resolution: Doing sports on a regular basis, healthy diet and take things in stride.

In addition to the physical aspect I think it’s important to look smart as far as possible, and that’s a personal opinion, always avoid being ostentatious.

Strengths

Creativity

This is my skill more prominent, and frankly the more I find hard to master. I think the vast majority of children of this world has an amazing and wonderful gift, the imagination, but as we grow that gift is lost in a sea of maturity and seriousness. Luckily for me, that ability has not diminished at all, I would even say that has been developed with some skills like painting, drawing, advertising, marketing, etc…

Creativity has helped me in many aspects of my life, in society (organizing dinners, events, etc… ) and in my professional life (presentations and problem solving in an innovative way, etc… )

Illusion

I think I have a gift to convey enthusiasm to others, that this illusion and my imagination together becomes a powerful weapon when selling my ideas, which I apply to all my projects.

Many companies use the seriousness, reliability and security as a banner to sell their brands, but many of these attributes are almost impossible to guarantee. Why not bet on adding a human and nice aspect ?

Stubbornness

I never give up. period.

My current situation

I am currently working in one of the best companies of Barcelona, a company (startup), in which I have spent the last two years working hard to help grow as much as possible, and where I have participated in very interesting projects. During my interview I warned them of my idea generation capacity, which I know has not gone unnoticed. Some of my ideas are have been heard, but almost none of them has been done and this is  frustrating.

Sometimes I wonder if I don’t belong to the development world but the advertising or artistic. But I know I’m happy to see what I code becomes something real and special. I feel happy seeing faces of the people and how they react to my work, with surprise and sometimes admiration

As I said before I never surrender, I think my ideas could make this business and maybe some parts of this world better and I will fight every effort to come true, but the truth is that I belong to the realm of creation and innovation, not to the resolution of bugs or monotonous work. Is for this reason that from now on I will also fight to get my personal projects get done, sure of myself, taking responsibility, leading and working hard with all my creativity and illusion to bring them up, and I warn you, I never give up, never

(at some point during the creation of this post an egg with a very hard layer is just broken;)).

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus