Entrepreneurship is a way of life

Lessons from Danny Andreev, a serial entrepreneur and engineer

I came to the realization that entrepreneurship was right for me when I imagined what my life after college would look like. I liked my internship at Mastercard but didn’t really see myself maintaining an 8–4 routine, asking for more work, and just waiting…and asking again…and waiting.

I don’t see myself waiting my turn for a promotion. I want to work on a lot of things, and I want to be more impactful than the role society said I was qualified for!

What first appealed to me was the ability to wear many hats, quenching fires and moving quickly. Every day something new at the office happens and every member of the team is pivotal to the company’s success and growth. Quite frankly, the uncertainty, unstructured environment, and having control (or lack thereof) of the company’s destiny is exciting. I might be idolizing the startup life, but I know it’s sexier than the alternative.

When I shared my mindset with my major advisor, he connected me to a former student of his that dropped out of WashU to start a rideshare service called Charged. In less than a day, we connected.

The central theme from Danny’s experience so far was: “Entrepreneurship is a way of life.” Although it sounded cliché at first, I quickly fathomed what he meant throughout the hour-long phone call.

In Miami, everyone that is unemployed is an entrepreneur… at least that’s the misconception or the way of spinning it to stay relevant on social media. You can showoff things that aren’t yours with a fake YouTube ad like Tai Lopez, make money and get famous for it. I admired this practice until I started getting these ads all the time. Now it’s just annoying.

Why do people drop out of school or quit their stable job for a startup? People take the “risk” for a chance of the upside if or when the startup takes off. Employees are given some equity in addition to their salary that incentivizes them to produce good work. Some people think it’s a smart decision financially…make less now to get paid way more in the future. Unfortunately, there’s a 1–20% chance that the startup is successful. So, Danny says “don’t go for the stocks if money is your motive”

Many people fail to realize that “the energy from this will make us a lot of money” fades after 4 months. The fire ought to use a different kind of fuel.

Entrepreneurship is a calling. It should be something you incorporate in your daily life. You can do it as a project on the side of your 9–5 (moonlighting). You can also just stop everything and just go for it (bootstrapping is creating a company without outside investment) — or you can help another group of people on their project as an employee or consultant. Your life, your choice. I would weigh the Pro’s and Con’s as it relates to you…But, the main point here is that it’s about doing something you’re very passionate about.

Danny mentioned he had a friend that took on glass blowing as a hobby and went on to create a successful business around it. This sounded a lot similar to the Tito’s Vodka story, except Tito’s made it to a billion-dollar company. I say this not just because of how much money the founder makes but because of the impact and scale of the work. That simple toying around with flavors and alcohol on the side in Austin turned out to be one of my favorite hard-alcohol drinks in college. We talked about Ring, the company acquired by Amazon for slightly over $1Bn. This software company started because the team was working in the garage on some other project and got tired of answering the front door while working. They decided to live stream video from front door into garage computer screen to make it easier for them to see if it’s worth getting the door.

According to Danny, these three stories are just three prime examples of his fundamental premise. The most successful startups originated when the team was screwing around with some activity **insert romanticized idea here** that they were already passionate about and almost discovered by accident. Sometimes it’s in a common day occurrence. Maybe the spark comes way after the occurrence and then they materialize how pursuing this thing can make life easier for a lot of people. I don’t know where or when the *aha* moment occurs, but when I do, I’ll make sure to share it.

For those of you who are like me and still don’t have this idea, team or are just not ready yet to risk it all. You can still get a job and use it to fund your moonlit project. Remember, entrepreneurship is a way of life.

A life hack to circumvent biased recruiting for a job or if you just want to have more flexibility in terms of your work schedule is to work as a contractor / consultant. This back-door technique makes it easy for a company to hire you and not promise you the benefits you don’t really care about when you’re young. Do contract work, pick up skills and contacts along the way and ensure you are still learning while you focus your efforts on what you are truly passionate about.

“The front door is always crowded” Danny emphasized, and this is quite similar to one of my favorite sayings: “don’t be a sheep.” Don’t do something because everyone else is doing it. Get curious. Experiment with a new skill or hobby. See if you like it, your gut will tell you if it’s worth continuing or not. Ask your friends who know you well for their opinion on whether it’s worth doing or not. I suggest keeping a checklist of pros and cons that you require for your own utility/risk aversion. Once you make this a habit, you want to stay consistent in the way you make decisions. The message here is you’ll grow through the process of trying to learn, doing new things, and iterating over and over. Growth should be limited only to your potential, not arbitrarily by a corporation.

As Drake mentions in Omerta “a lot of pain a lot of passion” is what it takes to be successful in this field.

The goal is to wake every morning with a purpose and vigor to achieve what you set out to do. When what you are doing excites you, it won’t feel like work. That is the entrepreneur way of life.

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