Indonesia wasn’t designed to make me comfortable. I knew the second I landed in Jakarta. Indonesia is a extraordinary country, dogged by problems that can seem insurmountable. Where anything seems possible. I knew that I wanted to build my own business one day. Here my journey of a broke entrepreneur in Indonesia.
How to start a business ? The art of not listening the negative voices
First and for most you need to define success and what do you really want for yourself. What is your definition of success ? For some people success is a nice car and big house, for other happiness. Once you know what you want, you will start felling excited and overwhelmed by your own vision. At this stage you will probably meet some negative people, from loved one most of the time. Here you gotta learn to not listening to the negative voices or being affected by other judgements, instead learn to listening to your heart.
It is what I have done, I travelled to Indonesia where I spent some years working for a small amount of money. I had to make sacrifices, learn a new language, adapt myself to the culture, get closer to the Indonesians, learn their code and try their lifestyle. After working for severals companies from 2013 to 2017. I decided to build my own advertising agency with 3000$ in my saving.
The first step is the hardest
The first step is the hardest. Don’t allowed to let your dream die. Don’t be afraid of change, to jump, to fail. In order to achieve tremendous things in life, you need to be driven by a wind of love, a fire of passion and an ocean of respectability and practicality.
True champions are made of sweat, determination, and guts.
There’s a lot of dirt, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.
When I started in 2018, I was clueless about business. I did not know how to run a business, how an advertising agency works. But I knew that I wanted to impact the world trough a creative agency, I was never afraid to try. The first months was the hardest, and it wasn’t about the fact to find ideas or to find clients. But to stay consistent in working on keeping the work on track and not giving up.
The journey of an entrepreneur is no rosy path to walk
Pursuing a life of an entrepreneur :
– unbelievably lonely
– overthink everything
– nobody understands you
– rejection
– making tons of mistakes
– being up at weird hours
The first months
My strategy was to offer free advertising plan for a month. Once the client is satisfied with our work ; we would sign a contract. Once you get your first client, you will get your second client and the third client. And eventually build a good reputation to stay strong into the game. I remember when I sign my first contract as a CEO with the biggest mall in Indonesia Lippo mall. It definitely gave me confidence to keep going, but I was even more proud when I start recruiting a team to help me out in the long journey.
In the middle of the journey
After 2 months starting, I had 7 employee and they were awesome, most of the design team came from the Yogyakarta (known for their creativity). Our first month contract with the client was a success. This first win lead us to win a pitch and to be hired by the iconic brand Yupi ” the candy brand” the competitor of Haribo.
After 2 years of struggle, success, failure and passion I unfortunately had to quit from my own company. One of the hardest decision I ever made in my life. If you read this and plan to open a business remember that one of the keys for a successful business is too choose carefully a business partner who has the same vision.
Meanwhile quitting from my position of CEO, I open another business, a bar soap company with my dear friend Josue. @Bearcraftsupply.
The journey of an entrepreneur
In Conclusion, taking a journey of an entrepreneur as an expatriate has been of my best decision. Entrepreneurship is a journey, and everyone goes through it a little bit differently. Some move through the process fast others move slowly.
As Andrew Morgan said, “Entrepreneurs are scared of all types of stuff and deal with more fear than most people. They just fear not trying at all.”
I faced every day my micro failures, I literally had bad moments and issues, daily. Living in Indonesia even after a long time wasn’t always easy. You need to daily adapt yourself in so many uncomfortable situation. We all have to take a super honest look at the things we beliefs. And figure out which beliefs are moving us forwards towards our goals and which beliefs are holding us back. My fear of regret is stronger than my fear of anything else. It gives me courage to keep grinding and moving forward.
I live under my own perspective, I like working, staying late hours and being up early. Often I put myself in uncomfortable positions and it’s ok for me .. it’s the quickest way to learn about yourself. I genuinely believe if you have good intentions and work hard that you can achieve incredible things.