Forget Buying a Home, I’ll Start a Business Instead

This might upset some people…

For the longest time I’ve been told to buy a home, settle down, and start a family. That’s the path you were told to take growing up in Ohio, and that was the goal for most people. I call it the Midwestern mentality. That’s how I viewed success and how I structured the first 24 years of my life. With that end goal in mind.

I went to school to become a doctor, that was the way I believed I could afford to buy a home and attain wealth. After 3 years in college, I was pipetting in a Biochemistry lab as a way to get good research experience for medical school applications. One day in the lab, I looked up, and took a look at all the other guys in the lab. They looked miserable. Everything about the way the approached their day to day was not what I wanted to do.

I thought, do I really want to slave away and be an indentured servant after an additional four more grueling years of school because this is the only way I could help people? There had to be a different way. That forced me to rethink and reframe what I wanted to do with my life and how I could really help people.

I decided I didn’t want to become a doctor, but instead design medical products, because I thought that was a “sexy” thing to do.

Since then I worked as an engineer at a product design company and a large medical device company. I got laid off from my first job after only being there for a year. At my second job, I had to claw for a “fair market salary” once I realized I was drastically underpaid for over three years.

What did I learn? One way or another, as an employee you’re viewed as an expense… a replaceable asset. No matter how good of a relationship you have with your manager or team. Ultimately the best interest of the business comes first, and employees are a flexible expense that can be easily let go and a new one can be re-hired when ready.

Both of these experiences brought my attention to the cold hard truth: Most employees are disposable to the business.

Perspective Flip

I got slapped in the face with the cold truth that I wasn’t going to get wealthy and own the success of my work by climbing the corporate ladder. Something needed to change. Up until that point, I thought my goal as an engineer was to work at Apple, because that was the apex of the career trajectory for an engineer.

Once you get to the peak of the mountain you’re climbing, you start seeing all the peaks that are 100x higher than the one you’re on. Now you want to climb those. But in order to do that you need to climb back down and start again from the bottom. My only advantage? I’ve done it once before. This one is just going to be bigger and harder.

What was that peak? The peak where I saw what else could be climbed and attained? That was a peak 100x bigger than the one I was on. It was the mountain that is building a business.

For a majority of my life, I was told, save my money so I have an emergency fund, save up for a down payment on a home. Joke’s on me. I didn’t realize I didn’t even want a home, I was just doing what other people told me I should be doing.

I dug around, and talked to people way wealthier than me. I kept hearing the same repeating theme over and over again. Aside from inheritance, they were wealthy in 1 of 3 ways.

1. They worked in real estate

2. They joined a fast-growing company early, got a ton of equity, or ownership, and are reaping the benefits of that success. (Or a nice exit)

3. They started a business (maybe sold one too)

I quickly killed real estate because I didn’t find that interesting at all (yet). I also think because of the way the US government is structured, it fundamentally rewards a system where real estate is consistently purchased and resold, all to inflate the value of that home. Making it look like it’s gaining value. Hence I think the most successful people in real estate don’t have to be the smartest.

That left me with two options of what I actually wanted to do: start a business or join a fast-growing company.

When I decide I to do something, I usually pick it, and then take it to the extreme. I chose start a business.

Becoming a Beginner

Jess Mah, a killer entrepreneur, was a C student in biology. But once her partner suddenly passed away, she took some time to herself and realized she wanted to pursue big things. Thing that actually matter. She decided to take moonshots in biotech.

How could she do that with little to no experience in this field? She was willing to learn. She asked good questions, studied hard, and hired tutors (yes you read that right) to learn about the spaces she was interested in.

(https://youtu.be/x1akceqpIVE?si=9pO948XHo-xLQI2W&t=913)

Two biggest thing’s I’ve learned from her are:

1. It’s dangerous to wait

2. Don’t be afraid to be a beginner again

What Now?

I have an engineering degree and an analytical way of thinking. Over time I got really good at connecting with people and speaking publicly. I had a long way to go to get where I am now, but everyone starts somewhere, with whatever they have in front of them.

What did I try? I had no idea where to start, and still have no idea where I am going. But I keep taking shots. So, what have I done so far?

• DJing

• Started a Media Company – Photo and Video

• Drop Shipping

• EHR platform for school nurses

I have either stopped, paused, got scammed, or decided not to pursue those options. Depending on who you are, you might look at that as small bets. Chicken feed. For me, those were massive learning experiences. I learned:

• The house music industry is slimy, the DJ lifestyle doesn’t fit my goals. (DJing in a packed nightclub may have been the biggest dopamine rush I’ve experienced to this day). I still do it, but am more selective about gig’s I take.

• I did not want to turn my passion project into a media business and its not fun to be a slave to an Instagram algorithm.

• If someone is selling you a course on how to do what they did, they probably wanted a new revenue stream because they couldn’t make any more money doing it the way they were already doing.

• Go build a product that solves real problems you understand, not just because you found one potential customer.

• Dont stop trying

I have been developing a business idea database where I find ideas write out a business framework in 2-5 sentences and run it by successful people close to me to decide what’s next. I’ve been told they’re getting better. They were trash in the beginning. That’s fine. If I hadn’t run it by successful people I trust, I would’ve probably started a car washing business or a cleaning company.

What’s Next?

I moved to San Francisco.

Not because I want to be part of the tech or VC scene there. It’s simple. If you want to build a business, you can’t do it alone.

I am moved to surround myself with people doing just that. In whatever capacity that is, the next groundbreaking deep tech innovation, or someone who solved such a niche problem yet making $6M/yr because they figured out how to get people to buy their solution to that problem.

I want to be around those people.

The difference between me and them isn’t that they went to Stanford and I went to Ohio State, its that they found a problem and did something about it instead of trying to climb the corporate ladder the rest of their life.

The expectation of buying a house, getting married, and then having kids by the age of 28 can go ahead and pound sand.

I’m going to take a little bit of risk in my life and start from zero, learn, ask questions, and build.

I’d rather build a business.

Stay tuned…