I believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Learnemy dies

Not when I run out of money, because money can be made

Not when I can’t find customers, because people always spend money (yes, even those “I don’t like to be sold to” people buys something everyday)

Not when I can’t find good team members, because the world has 7 billion people

But when I stop believing in it.

Yes, Learnemy dies when I stop believing in it. Circumstances only speed up or slow down its death, they don’t seal its fate.

Should there be a scale for tragedies, that we pay more attention to those events higher on the scale, ignoring those at the bottom?

I used to believe that people should help people first, not animals or the planet. So to me, NGOs dealing with animal welfare, environment or anything that does not directly improve the welfare of the human life are a waste of time.

Then I realized something.

Some care about people, some care about animals and some care about environment. We are different.

But we all fit.

The world is filled with different people and it’s like we’re different pieces of jigsaw puzzle. We can’t be more different but we cannot do without each other because the big picture can only happen when this different pieces come together. It is stupid to think one piece of puzzle is more important than the other.

So yea, neither is Boston or Pakistan is more tragic than the other, more deserving of attention or sympathy. In fact, don’t measure them on the same scale.

Was talking to an entrepreneur earlier today and he shared that when he started his law firm, he didn’t have a fall back plan. He bought over the company he worked at a monthly installment of $5,000. His pay at that company? $700.

The lack of fall back plan made him hustle hard.

Then I thought, I have a lot of fall back plans – I can get a job, I don’t pay rent, I’m gonna be fine even if Learnemy fails.

Hmmm.

Recently I spoke to an entrepreneur about this other founder, whom we all went to Silicon Valley together last year, whose startup just got acquired from some connections he made over there.

The entrepreneur said, “He (the founder) was lucky.”

Something in that statement didn’t sit well with me, but I couldn’t put my finger to it. Then I know what it is – that founder didn’t get lucky, he made luck for himself.

He actively chose to board the plane to SV, he actively chose to attend events and he actively chose to talk about his startup.

This is no luck.

It’s a conscious effort.

Which means that it can be created.

Last week I needed a cab and didn’t have cash with me. So naturally, I asked the taxi driver if she accepts payments by card.

Usually if I get a ‘no’, the driver will not take me – but not this driver.

She said, “I will bring you to an ATM. I want to earn your trip.”

Immediately she piqued my curiosity. All the drivers I’ve come across chose to miss out on the potential earning from an additional trip over convenience. It’s the first time I hear a taxi driver says, “I want to earn your trip”.

I knew she was of a different breed.

So I started making small talks, hoping to find out more about her. When I finally got around to ask what she was doing prior to driving a taxi, she told me she did “office work”.

It was only until I told her that I am an entrepreneur that she eased up and confessed…

She used to be an entrepreneur.

From my other observations, I’m starting to agree that founders are really different from everyone else.

I recently had a couple of meetings where I shared that Learnemy, at its current stage, is a long way from being a million dollar business.

Here are two responses I’ve got:

“You need to rethink about Learnemy. You are a university graduate and you are missing out $2k – $3k of salary every month.”

“You need to rethink about Learnemy. You are not going to make millions out of this business.”

(Note: Reponses are obviously paraphrased and not the actual words.)

Managers at SPRING made the first response. Boyd Au made the second.

Both responses are made with my interests in mind. Both responses suggested I do the same thing. But the mentality behind each of the responses can’t be more different from the other.