- Ever since I was a kid I knew I wanted
to be an entrepreneur.
In fact when I was 12 I learned how to code, I was building
websites, I made a little bit of money through Amazon
affiliates, this is a long time ago.
But through twists and turns in life I didn't start
a company, not really, and I went on to getting
a normal job.
And before I knew it I was 28 years old, I was working
in one of the largest Hedge funds in the world
as an Engineer and I kept asking myself,
"Is this it or am I ever gonna go and build that start up,
build that company, that big company
that I always dreamed of creating."
So eventually I did take the plunge but it wasn't
until I was 28 years old, and I didn't just quit
cold turkey, I went through a very specific plan
to actually take that plunge, to take that risk,
get my family bought in and go scale my saas business.
So on this episode I'm gonna walk you through the three
things that I did to actually prepare to quit my job,
start my company, take that plunge, and stop hemming
and hawing finally.
Intro.
(upbeat music)
What's up everybody, welcome to Unstoppable,
I'm TK, author of the the book "How To Punch
The Sunday Jitters In The Face."
Entrepreneur and Angel investor.
On this channel I help star founders, business owners,
entrepreneurs, and in this case future entrepreneurs
like you, become unstoppable in your life and business
through belief and discipline.
I drop an episode like this every single Sunday
and Wednesday, we're so excited we're gonna be doing
two episodes a week from now on.
And I drop an episode like this with the TK Energy
so be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon
so that you get notified every single time
I drop an episode.
If you currently have a full time job, a career,
and you have always dreamt of starting that company
and you haven't taken the plunge yet, I've been there.
You are not alone.
This is my story, I was...
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and it wasn't until
I was 28 years old that I finally said,
"You know what, I gotta go do it."
Now I had braces with entrepreneurship on the way,
I did a start up in college, we ended up selling it.
But very quickly I ended up in the workforce
and as I ended up in the workforce I kept optimizing
my life towards the things that were checking off boxes
and society told me was the thing to do.
I got the cool townhouse, I got the sports car,
I got a great job, I was doing all the things
that was supposed to make me successful
but I didn't feel it.
And at 28 I finally said, "Enough is enough, I got
to go chase my dream, I got to go do this thing.
I always wanted to start a company,
I need to go finally do it."
But the problem was this, I wanted to go do it but
I couldn't quit cold turkey, I had responsibilities
I had a job, I had a career that was hard to walk away from
because it was very promising and I had been successful
on my own right up to that point in that career.
I also had family that I had to explain my decision to.
So all these things were pulling me back from just taking
the plunge and doing what I really wanted to do,
which was to start a company.
So I made a plan and I followed these three steps,
these three steps and I'm gonna walk you through,
that I followed to actually make that transition
from being an engineer at a company to actually taking
the plunge and starting that start up.
Now the story for ToutApp, if you haven't see it
and if you're new to the channel, is I ended up quitting
my job, I started ToutApp, I raised venture capital
from Andreessen Horowitz, Jackson Square Ventures,
I scaled the company,
I ended up selling it to a market leader and then I joined
that market leader as a strategy, and we sold that to Adobe.
It was an incredible journey, but it was the scariest
thing ever, if you were to rewind back to that moment
where TK, baby TK, actually said, "All right, I'm gonna
quit my job," it was super scary.
But I prepared and that made it possible.
So if you're excited to dig in on the three steps
that I took, go ahead and smash that like button
it's for me and the YouTube algorithm, and let's dig in.
Step number one is clarity.
You gotta get clarity.
The thing that I ask entrepreneurs, whenever they come
to me, is why do you wanna start a company?
Why do you wanna start a business?
Who do you wanna serve?
What is your why?
Why do you actually wanna do this?
And how will you feel when you actually go and start
that company and scale that company and go accomplish
that goal, what are you gonna feel?
And most importantly, who are you gonna impact,
what will that mean to you, your family, your loved ones?
Why are you doing this?
You gotta get clarity on do you wanna go
into entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship is actually
very hard, but it's fully worthwhile.
So you gotta really be in it to win it otherwise
you won't make it.
So you gotta get clarity into why.
Why do you actually wanna do this?
How will you feel when you actually accomplish this?
And what is the impact that you're gonna have in this world
that you want to have, is why you want to go
start this company.
It's gotta come from within.
And if you don't get clarity what'll happen,
and I see this a lot, is you'll keep hemming and hawing,
you'll keep going from like, no I gotta do this career
thing it's going pretty well, it's safe.
To this I got to do this start up.
And what you end up with is years can go by
and you'll be neither here nor there.
You will no longer have that great career nor will
you have that company and you will just be wondering
where did the time go and why did I keep
second guessing myself?
So you gotta get clarity into why you wanna start
your business, why you wanna do a start up.
Whatever kind of business it may be, but you gotta
get clarity into it.
Now the one thing I always point out is,
going into entrepreneurship isn't necessarily the best
scenario for people.
So I did an entire video, it's the best jobs to take on
in your late 20's and early 30's so you can check
that out here or here and I'll link to it down below.
You can check it out in the end of this video, cause
I have more for you here, but I go into other alternative
careers that you can go into that could be fulfilling.
So maybe you just don't like your current career,
but that doesn't mean you have to go into entrepreneurship
because it's all the rage these days.
It's not for everybody, so you can check out that video
later if you have, if you wanna consider other options.
Step number one is you gotta get clarity.
The second step that I took, I actually got clarity
I'm like, "Why do I wanna do this, why is this?"
I'm like, I really wanted to start a company, I really
wanted to, I love building software.
I love building companies, like I wanted to do it.
And I had a taste of it during college, doing my first
company, but then entered the workforce and I wanted
to go back to that.
And I wanted to go all the way with it.
So I got that clarity and you should too.
The second thing that I get very clear on is you gotta
set a vision for yourself and you gotta
change your identity.
You have a certain view of yourself right now.
For me, I was an engineer, I was a little bit of an awkward
engineer, and I didn't even go by TK I went by my middle
name Tawheed, and you don't even pronounce it as Tawheed
and no one else could pronounce it, it's actually Thawheed.
And it was just, my identity was all messed.
And so what I did was I sat down and I actually decided
on, all right, who do I want to become?
Who do I actually want to become?
And I wrote down that I wanted to run my own company,
I wanted to build my own saas software company.
I wanted to actually have a team that I could celebrate
with, I wanted to be someone that made an impact
in the world and left it better than he found it.
I wanted to be someone that was actually being able
to communicate the impact I'm trying to do and convince
people and sell and market and build incredible software.
I wanted to create that version of me.
And you see, you follow these videos, if you're new
here welcome, but if you've been following me for awhile
you see me as this guy, this TK.
I made up this guy from nothing.
I was an awkward engineer and I crafted this vision
of me, of who I wanted to become.
And the companies and the things that I wanted to create,
and I created that.
And that's a vision.
And that's an identity of you that you're gonna go create.
I thought of it as the version 2.0 of me.
And what I want you to do is actually create that vision
and that identity for yourself.
And the biggest question you can answer for that,
is who do you want to become?
If you wanna learn about just how I did that
and my own journey in creating this vision for myself
and making it real, check out this video I did
on the law of attraction.
Now look, I don't talk about frou-frou stuff on this channel
but I did it for the law of attraction because
the evidence and the results are in that video.
So you don't have to watch it now, I'll link to it below.
But check out that video and you'll see what I did
right before I wrote down that vision for myself
and I crafted it in a very specific way.
And then what happened 10 years after.
So the second step is you really gotta create that vision
and that identity for yourself, after you get that clarity.
Now before I go into number three, and I will go
into number three, and I will link to the video's
I just mentioned down below so you can watch those as well.
Are you getting this, are you starting get a little amped
up about actually starting that company,
about creating that new identity for yourself,
about getting clarity of who you wanna become?
If yes, give me a yes down below in the comments
so that I know you are with me.
All right,
now let's dig into number three.
Number three is you gotta trade Netflix time and start.
Now, once you get this vision for yourself, once you get
this clarity, there's gonna be, there's two rules
of thumb on this, all right.
There's two groups of people, two thoughts if you will.
There's one which is, burn the boats, quit the job,
go start the company.
And it's valid advice, if you can do that
you may wanna consider doing that, it may be a good
way to do it.
There's a lot of talk in the startup world
and in tech about privilege.
The thing is, if you are able to just quit right now
and go do it, then you probably should, but the reality is
most of us and this was the case for me, I didn't
have the privilege to just be able to quit my job.
And so I needed to create a plan.
I needed to find a way to de-risk this jumping off period
as much as possible to actually save up extra cash,
to actually figure out what would work.
So that when I actually quit my job I would actually
have the runway to go out and build a company
instead of running out of money.
I also had to get buy in from my family.
I happen to be from Bangladesh, and entrepreneurship
is not the most common thing, you kind of have
to get buy in.
And to go to your parents and say, "Hey, I'm gonna
leave the largest Hedge Fund in the world, where I am
too removed the person that runs it,
and I'm gonna go and do this other thing and start
a company," it's crazy.
And so, if you're in the camper you can just quit
right now and burn the boats and go do it, go do it,
I seriously think you should do it.
And there's a specific way to actually approach this still
but you should go do it.
But if you can't quit right yet, which was the case
for me, then you don't have to give up hope
and I don't want you to just be like, "Well it's impossible
for me," cause it's not, cause I was able to do it
and others have as well.
What you need to do is trade in your Netflix time.
And that's about an average of six hours on Netflix
that's spent by an average American.
An average American spends six hours on Netflix
and all I'm asking is don't even give me the all six hours,
take it if you want to, but give me three hours in a day
or four hours in a day.
And start to put it into actually building your startup
while you keep your job.
Now if you're part of that other camp where you do have
the privilege and you can quit, I would actually
tell you to not quit, because something weird happens
once you quit, at that point you're like, "Well
I really gotta figure it out."
And there's this pressure on you and it's really hard
to figure out what your idea is gonna be and how
to test it.
If you still keep your job and you start working on this
in parallel, believe it or not, it's actually a better way
to get to that idea.
To get to that thesis of what might work, instead
of just quitting cold turkey and getting a Wework
membership and just sitting at a desk and saying,
"All right, what's my startup gonna be?"
So, no matter which camp you're on, start trading in
your Netflix time and start building your startup.
In my channel I have countless videos on how to start
a saas business, so you can check out this playlist
which goes into more details on actually how to quit
your job and start a saas business, so if that's you
you can go explore more of those videos as well.
And don't worry I'll link to it below.
Just to recap, here are the three steps that I follow
to actually gain clarity and prepare to make
that plunge, and then took the plunge, but by the time
I took that plunge I had a lot of stuff figured out.
I was lucky enough to be able to do that.
Number one is I got clarity on why I actually
want to start a business.
Number two, I actually created a vision and an identity
for myself that I wanted to drive to.
And number three, I traded in my Netflix time
and started to actually work on my startup,
well before I quit my job.
So now you know these are the three steps, I'll link
to the other videos down below so you can check it out.
But I do have something special for you.
You might know how to actually approach this building
company thing, but you might not know the steps
to actually navigate to an idea, to navigate to a product
market fit, to navigate to testing that idea in the market.
Good thing for you I've codified everything that I know,
on getting a startup from an idea phase to a product
market fit, and everything that comes in between.
From someone that is an engineer and someone that taught
himself sales and marketing, I've codified that
into my Unstoppable guide to product market fit.
So I've included that for free you just have to follow
the link below, you can download the guide for free.
It'll give you the exact steps you need to follow
to actually start with an idea and get
to product market fit.
So I encourage you to check that out below.
If you liked this video please smash that like button,
both for me and my team, it means a lot to us.
And also for the YouTube algorithm.
I drop a video like this every Sunday and now every
Wednesday, so be sure to hit that subscribe button
and that bell icon so that you get notified every single
time I drop a video.
And also, if you have a friend wanting to start a company,
if you have a friend that is building a company,
please share my video and my channel with them,
it'll mean the world to us.
We wanna get our message out to as many people as possible.
And lastly remember, everyone needs a strategy for
their life and their business, but when you are with us,
yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK, and I will see you next week.
(upbeat music)