Q&A Part 2: More questions about getting a start up off the ground

Hello again guys, I have received more questions about this whole new experience of getting a start up company off the ground from many of my friends and I am going to do a part 2 to share this crazy experience with you.

Q: What if you make a mistake? Loads of start ups make mistakes when trying to launch something new.

A: That is a risk all start ups have to take. Anyone can make a mistake and the key is to make sure you don't make such a big mistake that it would sink your business - if you make a mistake, you make sure you analyze what you've done wrong and try to learn from the experience, to make sure that you never make the same mistake again. In my opinion, it is good to learn from your mistakes - during my gymnastics training, I do make mistakes and fall sometimes when learning new skills. It is tempting to pretend that fall never happened, but I would use it as a reminder to think about what I need to do to avoid, to do better and how I can improve my technique. In gymnastics, getting over the fear of falling is a very important part of the learning process; the same principle applies in the world of business. Of course I am going to make mistakes (I have made some already), but I do know exactly how to recover from them.

Will I make a profit or a loss?

The greatest mistake one can make is to have that 'let's pretend that never happened' attitude - I actually see this a lot in sports. There's this guy in my gym, let's call him Michael (not his real name of course) and he's trying to do a front somersault with a full twist. But Michael has an attitude problem, he is arrogant and thinks he knows a lot about gymnastics but really, he knows the basics well but when it comes to anything more complex or difficult, he is out of his depth. Michael is making a fundamental mistake when he attempts his front somersault with a full twist: he starts twisting even before he takes off, that results in a crooked somersault that is not very high and he has no chance of landing on his feet, never mind complete that full twist. I have told him many times, "Michael, you need to set it up right: take off with your hands over your head, wait a moment before you even start thinking about twisting, that will ensure that your somersault is high and powerful enough for you to add one, even two twists into it." But will he listen? No, he keeps making the same mistake over and over again. He gets frustrated and wonders why he keeps landing on his bum - but I have given up trying to help him as he won't listen. So I am not going to make that mistake: I will definitely listen to criticism when I get things wrong, even if it may be a bitter pill to swallow. As the say goes, 苦口良药.

Q: What about the acting stuff Alex? I thought you were doing quite a bit of acting?

A: I still want to act of course, but that's dependent on me getting the part when I do audition. I am not going to wait around for stardom to happen - I've done loads of TV and theatre over the years, I've been there and done that, I don't have anything left to prove in that department: for me, I think I would have hated myself if I had moved to a city like London and never even gave acting a go. So if someone wants to pay me several thousand pounds to star in an ad, then of course I am going to do it. Being my own boss means I can be very flexible with my time and I can move things around to make that happen - I don't have to ask anyone for permission, I just give myself the permission to do that. That is quite a luxury, when I compare myself to other actors who are doing other jobs which are far less flexible in terms of being able to get away for an audition/shoot at the last minute. So yes, I'm still in the game as an actor.

Q: How different is what you're doing now compared to what you have done before in finance?

A: It is a huge step up. Oh my. In the past, I could hide behind my boss and my job was simple: I was just there to sell the product, I didn't need to make it, I just sold it. However, in my current role, we haven't even got the product ready yet: I have to be involved in the process whereby we create the product, structure the partnerships, make sure we put everything in place for the launch - it is in fact a lot more complex than my previous role where I simply sold and had my eye on the commission. Someone said to me today that this was the difference between merely being a salesman and a CEO - a salesman simply had to sell, whilst a CEO has to do a lot more in terms of managing a successful business strategy. There are times when I think, "hell yeah, I can do the CEO thing, I love this challenge - bring it on." There are other times when I feel quite nervous and wonder if I have done enough this week.

Q: Are you the only Chinese/Asian guy in the start ups programme there?

A: There's a really international environment here, I have heard many languages spoken in the building: Russian, Hebrew, Hindi, Mandarin, Spanish, French, German, Polish and that's just those that I have heard today. So yes there are Asian people here (I use the term people as that's gender neutral, there are Asian women working here too), but most of them conform to the stereotype of the geeky Asian who is really good at technology and hides behind their laptops. There is no smoke without fire I'm afraid - that Asian nerd stereotype does exist. Ironically, I am the only East Asian guys who is doing the sales & marketing side of the things here and the geeks in my company are white.

The best dressed man in the office, as always.

Q: What is the male to female ratio in the start ups you see there?

A: Well, I hate to say this, but in the high tech sector, it is about 20% female at best, so 1 woman for every 4 men. And I'm including women who do what I do, ie. those who work in a business role (sales, marketing, HR etc) rather than doing the technical stuff, if you were to talk about women in technical roles, that figure drops a lot more. In the rail industry that we're dealing with, the figure seems to be closer to 50-50, it is far more balanced. In the building where we are based, there are start ups dealing with the fashion industry as well and in those companies, it is more like 2:1, two women for every one man. Is this anything new? Not really, when I worked in finance, it was pretty much like 1 woman for every 4 to 5 men as well. Sad but true, that in 2016, we are still witnessing this. Are women just less inclined to work in certain roles or is this just sexism at play? What do you think? I'm not sure.

Q: How hard are you working these days then?

A: I think we have to redefine what it means to work hard - I am always thinking about work, I even dream about it. But let me share a story with you: I had to come up with a marketing plan for our launch so I did the boring thing and opened up a Powerpoint presentation and tried to write one like that. I struggled, I was stuck. Then I wandered into a boardroom that was empty and started drawing on the whiteboard (literally, pictures, rather than words) and the ideas began to flow. I then had something visual to base my ideas around; so when I am on my bike or in the gym, I then think about those pictures that I have drawn and develop those ideas in my head. I think like I dream, ie. in images rather than in words, I am a very visual guy - I know I like writing very much (hence that is why I like to blog a lot), but I am the ideas man and that usually means getting away from my laptop in order to make those creative ideas flow.

I work smart, not just hard.

Q: Why this, why now?

A: Good question. Frankly, before I got involved in this, I was having a fairly comfortable life. I have plenty of passive income from being a landlord (I have a sizable central London property portfolio), I was getting good money doing consultancy work (getting around £100 an hour) so I could have afforded to work part time as a specialist consultant, collect my rent, blog a lot, do loads of sports and go on loads of nice holidays this year. In fact that was pretty much what I did in 2015 but I am turning 40 this year - last year almost felt as if I was sliding into early retirement and I am not ready to do that just yet, I do have a lot more to offer and plenty more productive years! Just because I am rich doesn't mean I shouldn't work; in any case, I did get a mortgage to pay for my new place, so rather than just use my rent to pay for the mortgage, I'm rolling the dice and trying to make my current start up work: if it pays off, I'll be able to clear the mortgage very, very quickly and who knows, even have more for yet another property to add to my portfolio. But for now, it is about motivation and ambition as I turn 40 (in a month, yikes, I still can't get my head around it), rather than money. I've got plenty of money, but I crave the challenges of making a start up work.

Besides, this opportunity presented itself - it's not like I went out looking for a new job just because I am going to turn 40 this year. This job found me, not the other way around. It is a pretty long story but in a nutshell, the technology behind the project was first conceived by a group of IT experts at a hackathon event and only one of them was in a position to develop it further - the rest of them had full time jobs already and were not in a position to work in a start up company. I told that guy (who is now my head of IT), "what you have here is really such a brilliant project, if you can't find anyone to develop this with you, heck I'll go into a partnership with you and do this with you." One thing led to another and here I am: so when life gives you lemons, you don't say "oh I prefer apple juice, this is not my first choice." You take the lemons and you make the best lemonade the world has ever tasted. Well, that's my attitude anyway!

Why am I doing this now, as I turn 40?

Q: What if you fail? Quite a high proportion of start ups do fail you know...

A: Well, at least I can said I tried. I don't believe that I would walk away from it all saying, "that was a total waste of time, I should have never tried it." I am in a position to try it, given that I am financially sound and stable - not many people can work for a start up like this whilst having to put food on the table and pay their kids' school fees etc. I am learning an incredible amount from the experience and this new knowledge will serve me well in the future. There are moments when I get frustrated when things don't go right; there are times when I wonder if I am doing enough or doing the right things. There are also times when I wish I could just take it easier and not work like this hard and be so stressed - but such good opportunities like that don't come knocking on my door everyday. It would be madness not to give it my best shot and see what happens. All I can do is to try my very best for now and just see what happens.

I'm happy to take more questions about this crazy new chapter in my life, just leave a comment. Thanks for reading.

I'm always glad to answer your questions.