(My dad owns a fiberglass tank manufacturing shop in south Texas, that’s him on the left)
If its easy, everyone’s gonna to do it. That’s why a lot of business advice on the internet sucks: they suggest easy business ideas because it’s appealing. They try to hide the fact that either these businesses are deceivingly difficult (like content-creation), or they really are easy, meaning a flood of competition.
I like honest advice the most: be upfront with the challenges and don’t sugarcoat. This is why I liked Nick Huber’s advice so much. If you want to be an entrepreneur, there’s a right way to do it. It takes hard work, it wont be glamorous, but it will work.
But first, let me explain how I got to this point.
I, like most people, like to think I’m different. Now, whether or not that is true in reality is debatable, but we’re not going to worry about that just yet.
I feel a pull towards non-conventional paths, and it affects many of my long-term decisions. With college graduation coming up, I have to figure out what I’m doing with my life. Recently, I’ve been looking into entrepreneurship. What would it look like to start a company? Not just any company, but one that actually makes sense, the product needs to be practical.
I’m a (soon to be) alumni from Berkeley, so I’ve seen my fair share of startup schemes—people trying to build a food delivery app or a new ML/crypto service. Why are they starting companies like this? Because … those are the kinds of companies you make in Silicon Valley.
What I saw was a lot of products that were pretty useless. You’ll hear the term “product-market fit” thrown around a lot, and for good reason: too many people create products that nobody actually cares about. Without demand, there is no product. But, in a world like ours where there are so many problems that need to be solved, how is it conceivable that we have wasted so much time making products that nobody cares about?
—That’s what I tell myself when I try to justify what comes next. In reality, if you’re talented enough and have a product, even if its mediocre, I’m sure you’ll be fine. I just get grossed out when I see anything resembling a rat race. Alright, back to the narrative—
The startups I’ve seen around me are trying to be way too fancy. This is a combination of ego and unrealistic expectations set by the tech community. The valley has adopted a narrative for success. It depicts a young (wo)man having an ambitious, disruptive idea, working like crazy to build it, getting millions in VC funding, becoming a unicorn, and then swimming in a bathtub of money, Scrooge McDuck style.
The result is a warped idea of what a startup is supposed to look like. Instead of gunning for ideas that make sense, people are gunning for moonshot ideas that mostly suck and end in failure.
I admire those few young geniuses out there who are smart (and lucky) enough to have a billion dollar idea and go for it. But for you and me, there are better alternatives.
Seeing so many high risk/high reward startups drove me to the other end of the spectrum towards practical, boring businesses. I’m talking about things like home services and real-estate: plumbing, electrical, painting, self-storage facilities, etc.
Come to find out, there’s a small community of people building these “Sweaty Startups”. This is a movement of sorts, started buy a guy named Nick Huber. Nick has a blog and a podcast with over 40k monthly downloads.
For a young, aspiring entrepreneur, this route makes a lot of sense.
Here’s the argument: most huge tech companies were made with a lot of hard work and a lot of luck. For sweaty startups on the other hand, very little luck is necessary, making them extremely low risk. As long as you do the job and have good customer service, you’re golden.
Another thing: its goddamn ballsy. Going to start something like a plumbing company is so radically different from today’s expectations around a “startup”- getting your hands dirty, working with people from a different socioeconomic background, predictable revenue- perfect for someone who loathes the idea of doing something unoriginal.
I think the hardest step for an aspiring entrepreneur is getting that first $100k or so in the bank. Before that, you have nothing- no confidence, no money, no knowledge. Failure means living with mom or (god forbid) getting a real job.
But, once you get past that point, you’ve got one business under your belt and you have some capital.
Success compounds. The hardest part is just getting started.
Nick Huber started with a moving company. After a few years, he used that money to invest in low risk, predictable areas like real-estate. Nick is smart, and Nick will be a very rich man one day.
This is a solid plan if I’ve ever seen one, however there’s one factor that I don’t think gets enough attention and it’s arguably the most important: the psychological barrier.
Psychology
Here’s the part where I contradict everything I’ve said up until this point. I never promised this blog would contain coherent arguments for or against anything. I’m just writing my thoughts, and its a crazy world up there in the ‘ole cranium these days.
I like these businesses because they make sense. Problem is, not everything in life makes sense. I’m often a bit idealistic when I try to navigate my life. My goal is not to make money in the easiest way possible, or to make a huge company one day.
Really, what I want is an environment where I have room and encouragement to express myself. I’m looking to “yield that peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear”. I want to show myself and others what I’m really made of, and to be a strong positive force for the people around me.
It’s hard to find room for creative self-expression when you’re a plumber.
But then again, someone has to do it.
The problem with these “sweaty startups” is that they throw out all fluff. They’re a no-nonsense, “you give me X and I will give you Y in exchange” type of business. There’s nothing wrong with this. Its straightforward and it’s honest. I just think I’m looking to get more out of my work than making money.
I want to live and work with smart, motivated people. People who will push me to be a better version of myself and challenge my worldview. I imagine its quite hard to find those kinds of people in the plumbing business.
You could say that this kind of business is merely a stepping stone, something to give you leverage so that later down the line you can create something bigger and more ambitious.
I believe this line of thinking is a slippery slope, and I always come back to this quote from Thoreau:
“Spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it, reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once.”
I think that if you know what you want, you should just go for it. No apparently ideal circumstances can make up for a lack of passion. I haven’t quite found what I want yet.
Or maybe I have. Its just there, quietly huddled in the back of my mind, not yet recognized for what it is.
I wrote this post over the course of a couple weeks as I finished up my last semester of college. I would view it less like a coherent argument, and more like a walkthrough of my mental process as I figure out what to do with my life.
If you have any advice for me, or just want to chat, DM me on Twitter