Hacking Communities’ author Lais de Oliveira published an award-winning article in the Badass Times, titled the The Ugly Duckling Road to Badass Entrepreneurship.
Lais at Web Summit 2019
Read an excerpt here and go to the Badass Times to read the full thing.
"I was 28, featured in a magazine with 3 other expat founders who chose Malaysia to start a company. People read about me going places and starting 8Spaces (and getting it acquired by FlySpaces) but missed the fact that I also:
The author proceeds to list the very unlikely and intense list of activities she engaged with, while starting her first business. And continues:
Entrepreneurs are like ducks 🦆: underneath the surface, we are paddling – non-stop. What you see beneath the surface of entrepreneurship is unglamorous, but I’d do it again. All of it. I miss those days when taking action wasn’t an option: it was the way to go. I’d just add a healthier lifestyle to it (and work from a farm 👩🏻🌾 raising chicken 🐔). I’m actually doing it. More specifically, I’m raising a couple of helmeted guineafowls, the most badass birds I’ve ever seen (like the honey badger of the Galliformes)
The author explains that representation matters, explaining that community was fundamental for her journey:
I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur. Dad is a farmer, mom is a banker (for real). I’m glad the community around me inspired me to follow the ugly duckling path. 🦢
I probably wouldn’t have had the idea of the company I started, hadn’t I been surrounded by founders, companies, digital nomads, and other people whose problem I would solve. While laser focus works for some, but I needed to be surrounded by a community. Today, while I have a stronger network and way more focused relationships, I still thrive within a community – because sharing experiences with others accelerates everyone’s learning curve.
I learned most of what I know from the ecosystem, before learning from experience. Later I’d work on startup ecosystem development and validate the impact of local and global connectedness in accelerating growth (as defined by Startup Genome).
Another point is that representation matters. There was an emerging number of people who looked like me being founders, which helped. Being around them reinforced the belief that I could be a successful founder. And look: I am privileged in a myriad of ways, let’s face it, just by the fact I am born white. In the process of researching the economic value of diverse communities – while writing Hacking Communities – I found that the influence of our surroundings is crucial in becoming the best version of ourselves.
Read full article here: https://www.badasstimes.com/the-ugly-duckling-road-to-badass-entrepreneurship/