Recently I have seen some motivation videos about successful people like Jack Ma or Elon Musk on Facebook. The Video begins by telling how miserable was their life by failing over and over, dropping-off or leaving the university, nobody wanted to give them a job and then something happens. Their life changed by trying harder and they become successful, a Billionaire! I guess in most cases becoming a Millionaire/Billionaire part is what makes people watch those videos?
The only thing I could say about those videos is that working hard, finishing things you started with high quality, not spending your time with losers and not wasting time by doing fruitless thigs is the absolute key to success. As a teenager, I attended all classes and tried to get the best grade. I entered the university by studying hard and by getting the full points from the entrance exam. During my bachelor and master studies, I did all studies with the highest motivation and also by trying to be a model student. After the graduation, there has not been a day without studying or trying new things! As I have said before there is not a shortcut in life!
In my earliest blogs, I explained my experiments to work for a large global corporation and my road to becoming an entrepreneur. It was seven years ago during the Christmas holidays when I decided to leave the golden cage (if you can call it even a golden cage) and become a founder and join a Start-Up. Seven years later after hundreds of sales meetings and completed projects, hiring 50 amazing workmates we did the best year ever at Digital Illustrated. The growth of the company was over 50% compared to 2016 with a turnover of 6,2 million euro. We made over 24% earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA) which is amazing in the ICT consulting business. The gains explain how efficient is the business and organization model and how self-managing organization can be fertile!
The following chart demonstrates the growth of Digital Illustrated from 2011 to 2017.
Beside the economical aspect past seven years has made me a new person. Continuous hanger for new information, competition with other companies during the bad economic situation and financial depression, office management, personal time management, sales and marketing, HR, building the corporate culture, recruiting, mentoring, entrepreneurship, board working, customer and partner relations, Selling the company and the process related to the EXIT and eventually not giving up in any situation are among the biggest learnings I embraced. For the past months, I have had some questions in my mind:
- When is the time to let go and look for new opportunities?
- How easily can you let things you created with your all your heart go and continue with something new in your life?
- Is there a guarantee that the new adventure will bring you success and/or satisfaction?
- Do you need a change in your life when you are successful and satisfied?
To find answers to my questions I have decided to leave my current position at Digital Illustrated. I’m going to have at least six months break from my day job. I have not resigned from the company and might get back to work but again once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur. At this point, I want to thank my family for the great support, my co-founders for the amazing teamwork and the rest of the staff (those who are and are not anymore working for DI) to make this amazing and successful voyage possible. I guess this is a sweet goodbye for now!