Starting an Engineering Business - Lesson Learnt 2

People say that starting a business is difficult, but that’s like saying that fire is dangerous.

Yes, fire is dangerous, but it’s also a release of energy, a source of light, a source of heat. It’s many things that go far beyond being dangerous.

Before I started this adventure, people warned me it would be hard. After a lifetime working as an engineer, I knew it would push me out of my comfort zone, and I said: Hell, yes, I can do that!

Easier said than done.

These last few weeks have made me realise that my comfort zone is like a very flexible bubble. I can do a lot of things within that bubble, lots of different new things in many directions, and maybe that gives me a false sense of reality.

I think I’m out of my comfort zone because I’m doing something very different, but the truth is that I’m not. I’m still “comfortable” doing something new to me.

It’s only when I get close to actually bursting that flexible bubble that I panic and start finding excuses not to burst it.

Mario Puig Alonso describes this beautifully in The Strength of the Warrior (El Camino del Héroe): the warrior who has to face the imaginary dragon and refuses to let fear paralyse her. She needs to find her calm, not attacking, not retreating, just holding on until the shadows become light.

And this is where I am: still seeing shadows, still wanting to go back and hide, but learning to hold on. Listening to feedback I don’t want to hear and noticing signs I’d prefer to ignore, but holding on.

My lesson learnt: going back to the fire analogy, yes, fire is dangerous. But it’s also a reminder that transformation often begins with discomfort, REAL discomfort.