Getting Pulled in Two Directions

OK, I admit it. This is all new. After many years in customer software development, consulting and contracting, I needed to build something. I started Innovatium to be able to build things that I believe folks will like.

Well, maybe I've exaggerated a bit. After all, I've been building things for years; working with vendors, making schedules, backup schedules and contingency plans. So it isn't all new. But back to the point.

I recently came across two very different pieces of advice. One comes from Ali Summers, at Specialty Retail Group. She wrote a rant on the Game Industry Network (GIN), which you can read at tribes.net. I can't help but feel that she is speaking directly to me. After all, I focused on getting my product right, not on the marketing of it (things like "master cartons" and a UPC). Not that those are bad ideas, they are very good ideas. And even though I made most of the errors she warns about, there really is only one part of her rant that sticks with me, but it isn't on the Tribes site.

In the GIN version, she recommends that one approach a new venture cautiously (I'm paraphrasing here), and that one doesn't invest all one have into new ventures, but rather us funds that one can do with out -- you know, extra money.

In counterpoint to this, I read at LawLawLaw, the excellent blog of attorney Erik Heels, Eriks advice on Intellectual Property. In this piece, Erik advises "...quit your day job. It's 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you have to commit to it 100%."

I like both of these people. Ali is smart and knows what she's talking about. Erik is also smart and also knows what he's talking about. I look forward to following Ali's advice in the future (especially when we develop the next product here at Innovatium).

But for now, I think that I'm going to err on the side of Erik's advice vis a vis entrepreneurial esprit. I think that it is right to dive fully into this.

I am very proud of what I have accomplished in the past few months. Yes, I could have done better. I wish I knew Ali when I was getting started. But as my beloved wife said upon entering this endeavor, "No pain, no gain."

Thanks for reading