October 11, 2018
The scariest email I have ever sent
Posted by Lorenzo
There it was, 16:44 of a Tuesday, the scariest email I have ever sent.
It was the email sent to my investors, the people that gave me their money. In that email I was saying that I was accepting a job in another country.
More than 4 years after starting the project, that was it.
I was feeling burn out.
I was 24. Graduted from university few months before. Living in my parents house with no money in my pocket and no income. My girlfriend working in a different city. I was wasting day after days doing pretty much nothing. Feeling powerless.
Our hardware startup could not generate enough sales. We had spent everything into materials and marketing attempts. We were too slow to go to market. We haven't enough resources.
It was scared because I was incredibly low energy.
I was scared of what they could have said, maybe forcing me to continue working when my mind is already on the new job. I was scared to be stuck with my life.
I think this it's a common thing in everyone.
Most of the time we are the ones that close ourselves into our cages. Afraid to do the wrong move. Afraid to be judged. We don't have the courage to fail.
You should not be defined by others, nobody has the rights to say how to live your life. You, as every man, are born free.
Don't ask permission, just ask for forgiveness.
Just do what you need to do, yes, that one thing that you always write in your to do list but you are always scared to do. Do it now. Don't think about it, don't think about how the things would turn out.
Do it with courage and face the consequences.
Update #1
I had a meeting with my investors. There were some though moments and I let them shout at me. I tried to reply only when was necessary and without loosing the calm. I wanted to let their anger go.
I dont' think they have understood the situation. Our business has not worked from the start, I fell like we have tried everything with the resource we had. We all made many mistakes.
Update #2
It's been 2 months since I left my full time unpaid work on my startup to start an internship in Swizterland.
I couldn't be happier.
I'm really gratedul to have the opportunity to work and get money for it. The company is amazing, the job is fun and the collegues are super nice. I have continued to working on my startup in the evenings. I'm happy that I sent that email.