Robyn.Bowles.es

ideas and dreams

Over the past several weeks, Samuel and I have had many discussions about our future. These talks seemed to stem from a meeting we had with a British business owner who has resided in Spain for 18 years. We sought her advice in regards to our English Immersion Weekend business plan.

She was encouraging and willing to help us. One of the things she did for us was to research all the legalities and fees of starting and running a business here in Spain. She also advised us in regard to realistic costs versus income.

As she shared this information I felt more uneasy about the prospect of starting this business for several reasons: I felt the financial risk / investment was too great (actually more than we even posses); the workload would be as much if not more than our current workload which is what we were trying to avoid; the income after costs would not be as high as we had envisioned; we don’t even like teaching English; I don’t want to commit to being here for as long as would need be to make this business venture worthwhile.

Although these were the feelings I was experiencing, it appeared as though Samuel was still game to proceed. Of course, that made me feel even more uneasy (and anxious). I was afraid to talk to him about it until we both had time to think about it and I felt I could adequately articulate my reservations to him without completely disappointing him. We didn’t talk to Joel (our partner) about it either. He, too, needed time to think.

Finally, sometime after Christmas we talked about it. Although it was a bit disappointing to let go of the idea we (especially Samuel) had been working hard to achieve for the past few months (see http://www.volao.com); I was relieved to hear that Samuel had come to the same conclusion as I. We later met with Joel, weary of what he might say and not wanting to disappoint him. We were again relieved to hear that Joel felt the same way.

We do not look at the time as a waste. Samuel learned a lot as he wrote the code for the website; and we were able to develop a friendship with Joel that led to him joining us for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

I think it was shortly before Samuel and I finally shared our feelings about this that I read on online article about the biggest tech disasters of 2003. It reported on the millions of dollars and thousands of hours of work that was invested to develop something that ultimately flopped. And shortly after our decision I was talking with a friend who reminded me about Colonel Sanders who, in his sixties after losing his job, developed the “secret recipe” of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He presented his idea to hundreds of companies before finally, he was successful.

Both stories were encouraging. I was reminded that we are certainly not alone in the world of pursuing ideas and being unsuccessful. One consolation is that this business was merely an IDEA, it was not a DREAM. Now that we are free from focusing on this idea, we can start pursuing our DREAMS…!

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