Engineering and computer programming are some of the most interesting and fun professions out there if you love logic and creating things. Back in grade 7 of elementary school I began to get involved in the latter and learned Turbo Pascal as my first programming language. I was quickly hooked and came up with many ideas for programs. I even actually finished some of them.
For years I was content to write code, progressing onto more powerful languages and really developing my skills. I even competed in some larger student computing competitions and scored quite highly. I was positive that with my early start and natural talent that I would be able to profit quite nicely from my software development abilities. This was reinforced with some positive results in getting paid to run a gaming website in high school, although I was really hired for my writing abilities.
After that initial positive experience I ran into a wall. No not literally into a wall, but rest assured I’ve done that too. I had the programming abilities, but what respectable company would hire a high school kid to write their software? Especially when he’ll still be in university for many years after? I knew I would be able to get that amazing programming job one day, but in the meantime if I wanted to make money I would have to write and sell software myself. Over the course of a year of day-dreaming and no real progress I came upon two important realizations:
1) I could make a lot more money selling the software that I write myself instead of accepting a fixed salary.
2) I didn’t know a whole lot about this business stuff.
It’s the stereotypical plight of the modern skilled worker, whether you are a computer programmer, chemical engineer, or biophysicist. You have all the ability and brains to make something wonderful, but for some bizarre reason that’s not enough for the world to shower you in gold coins. Stuff like sales, marketing, accounting, operations, business planning, and other skills intended for those “not good enough” to be in your field are needed too.
I felt that point number 1 outweighted the barrier posed by point 2 so I started learning about business by diving right in. Somewhere between starting a computer repairs business and developing CustomBar my mindset began to shift and the idea of running a business transformed from a tool into a passion. Along the way I also half-started many ventures and made an amazing amount of mistakes.
I continue to make mistakes today, but I’ve also learned a lot. At first I thought I could take a shortcut and somehow learn all the business stuff that I needed to in a year and be mostly done with it, as I wanted to focus on programming. I’ve since found that it’s an amazingly deep field and that while you can accelerate your learning with the right resources there is no way to skip the need for real experience and real failures. I’ve also learned that a computer person can become a business person, and contrary to the popular belief amongst some people in the technical professions, business isn’t obvious at all!
For me business has become my number one passion, but I still love technology and utilize that to give my ventures a tremendous advantage. My most successful venture to date has been my website development company, which is keeping me extremely busy these days. The more I have embraced the business aspect of making money from technology, the better I have succeeded at it. If you’re currently struggling to put that technical degree to use, then learning how to start your own business is a terrific alternative to working for someone else.
What if I don’t want to become a business person? They suck!
This is common and understandable. Why should you have to learn a completely different field to reap the most rewarding opportunities and experience from your own? The truth is that you really don’t, but you have to be able to accept that a technology company still needs a sound business mind. The dot-com bubble should provide enough evidence of this. If you don’t enjoy business then the solution is to find someone that does, and match-up your skills to create a strong team. This becomes a must if you are going to be seeking venture funding, as you will need a management team with the right strengths. A good way to start meeting business people is to find and attend business related events, particularly those with a networking component. For those in the Waterloo area, the annual LaunchPad 50K competition and Communitech are great examples.
