Don't lose the dream

I had this funny experience 3 years ago, when I just had the enthusiasm to take my start-a-software-company dream seriously. I've read business books and articles on the Internet, and almost all of them would say that I must have a business plan... And so I bought a simple paper notebook and began to write my business plan.

This was on a January and I was fresh from Christmas vacation. I'm from Davao, Philippines. That time, I planned to go back to Manila by ship so I would have a long period of being alone and the sea would be a wonderful backdrop for my creative reflective thinking. It would take 3 days to travel from Davao to Manila by sea. During that 3-day stay at the ship, I had the pleasure of detailing my business plan, from the target market, user interface sketches to the use-case functionalities to the business model. I wrote all of them on that notebook. I wrote and scribbled most of the time during that stay and so I decided to place the notebook and the pen underneath my pillow so that I don't have to take it out from my luggage bag often. When we ducked Manila port, everyone was busy preparing their things for departure and so am I. You might have experienced something like this yourself on one of your trips. I folded my clothes and every other stuff on my bedroom and placed them on my bag. It didn't enter my mind that I hid my notebook and the pen under the pillow, and just because I saw that my bed was clear I thought I had everything in my bag already. I realized it only when I was on the bus and I wanted to browse my business plan, only to find out it's not in my bag.

I was angry with myself. That time I got discouraged with the wasted effort and for some reason didn't want to rewrite the business plan. My enthusiasm dropped dramatically. And for a time, I shelved the dream just because of the incident. We'll good for me, I may have lost my business plan notebook, but I certainly haven't lost the dream yet. I forgot what I wrote on that notebook already. I was afraid somebody on the ship would eventually find that notebook and copy my business idea and start it. Thank God, nobody in the Philippines have started my business idea yet. I will not be revealing my business concept on this blog, until I have started it already and I have my beta release.