Gary Ong | September 12th, 2021

Do you think you have what it takes to start a startup? After all, you have to cover fundraising, team building, technical development, networking, legal, accounting, intellectual property, joint development negotiations, grant writing, contracting, and every other little thing that comes up. It’s a long list and no one has all the requisite skills unless you’ve done it before. Even then, you’ll probably still be terrible at some of them.

When I started, I knew less than half of the skills on the list. Today, I can’t say that I am competent at all of them. But, I can say that I gave them all my most earnest effort whenever they were asked of me. Sixteen revisions on a grant application before it was perfect? Sure. Twenty revisions on a pitch deck before showing it to an investor? Whatever it takes. Firing an employee because it was a bad culture fit? It hurts but we have to do it. The list goes on. Like everyone, I make mistakes. Like everyone, I learn. If I thought I needed to know everything before the journey began, I might have never taken the first step.

So if you’re thinking about starting but are worried about not knowing everything, don’t be. I didn’t, and no one else did either. But like everyone, you will also learn everything you need to learn along the way. So right now, all you have to do is this: just breathe, and take the first step.