Wrestling with The Market

A founder friend mentioned in an offhand comment how he enjoys "having a tussle, just me and the market." He was making a point about being profitable and not needing investors anymore. Of course there's still dozens if not hundreds of employees involved, and many other moving parts. But the concept stuck with me.

In order to get to that level—responsible for millions in cashflow—one always starts by wrestling with oneself. I mentioned in yesterday's post on battling resistance how it's hard to do anything for multiple days in a row. But you have to build discipline somehow if you expect to complete any project, large or small.

The next step is to understand your market of interest. Buried in this article is the huge mistake I made with my first company. We built a wallet app before fully learning how to integrate with Ecuador's banks. This cost over a hundred thousand dollars of my investors' money and more than a year of my life.

It's not always possible to have all the answers in advance. Part of the dance is learning as you go. You might try a certain wrestling move and the market might respond well or poorly.

Hopefully that move amplifies (rather than sacrifices) your ability to make the next one.