The 6 Different types of People you will Encounter in your Startup Journey!

During the difficult journey of starting up, we meet different kinds of people, both good and bad. I have tried to summarize below, the common stereotypes everyone might encounter! 

The Back-Outs: All of you must have had regular discussions with your friends about different business ideas and how much each of you hate your jobs. Most of these sessions happen over beer or whisky and all or most of the friends would raise confident toasts that we all should quit or jobs and start our business soon. But once the time comes to make a decision, you will find the “Back-Outs”, who will say some reason or the other as to why they can’t quit their jobs now. Very few have the guts to join your startup, quitting their high-paying jobs.

The Quick-Quitters: When all of us collectively decide to startup, the true entrepreneur in us is aware of the arduous long journey, and knows very well that early days are tough. But, if you were a group who started up together, there will be at least one Quick-Quitter, who will suddenly come to you one fine day, and give reasons as to why he/she cannot continue in the startup, and needs to go back to a job. Quick-Quitters want overnight success; they want the luxury of a corporate and cannot survive in the hardships of a startup.

The Non-Payers: The problems for new entrepreneurs does not stop with wrong co-founders but also with certain type of wrong clients. When you start a new business, you will think you cannot be too strict on the payments and tend to give lenient payment terms to your first clients. And most of these early clients will take advantage of this and never pay, making big holes in your already bad financial condition. These clients which every startup should avoid are the “Non-Payers”. 

The Enticers: If the Non-Payers are one type of wrong clients, “The Enticers” are the other. These are people who will tempt you with alluring offers. Telling you that they have high-level contacts and this deal would be the break-through for you, they get a lot of free work done from you. Since you, as a new entrepreneur does not want to miss any opportunity that comes, you will do all the work for these enticers, in an attempt to get that elusive launchpad to getting big bucks. Remember, “Time is Money”, do not waste time on these ludicrous set of people. 

The Dis-Owners: Once you come out of your high-paying job, you will realise that your bank account starts diminishing quite fast, and you will go into your frugal mode. All those friends who wanted to always party with you in the good-times will no more consider you as part of their parties and gatherings. These are the opportunist friends – “Dis-Owners”, who were friends with your money and not you. Though difficult to comprehend at first, this is probably the most important realization during your startup journey, you get to know whom to trust and whom not to. 

The Impeccables: It is really worth it to encounter the rest of the five bad categories of people, to find the sixth “Impeccable” category of people, the true people whom you need for the rest of your life. These are the ones who stood by your side in the most difficult of times. The ones who keep motivating you whenever you are down and take care of you during those really dried-up times. One of these impeccables will also become your co-founder, part of all the good and bad times of your startup journey. If behind every successful man, there is a woman, behind every successful startup, there are a lot of these impeccables – the true unsung heroes. 

This is my first post in Rodinhoods, so I request all of your support and feedback! And I dedicate this post to all my “Impeccables” who keep supporting me in my startup journey. @lorzinian

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