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12/16/13 | OOO

Make the Leap: How We Left It All to Pursue Our Passion

When life is comfortable, it’s difficult to change and chase your dreams. Two founders share how they overcome tho inertia.
By Mike Arrieta and Brett Hagler (Co-founders, Hucksley)

Growing up we all aspire to be world-changing heroes with dreams as big as our imagination. As time passes by, we quickly fall into the habit of working for someone else and climbing the corporate ladder. Next thing you know, dreaming seems like something only children do. This happened to us, at least until we decided to leave out cushy jobs and start Hucksley, a for-purpose business that helps change lives with every purchase – at no extra cost.

When life is comfortable, it’s difficult to make the sudden change and chase your dreams. You must be crazy, right? The cons always outweigh the pros. The bills stack up, the mortgage payment is around the corner and we make the decision to put our passion on hold until the time is right. The truth is timing will never be in your favor. The picture-perfect opportunity will rarely present itself. However, what would you do if you knew failure was not an option? True entrepreneurs take a leap of faith NOW and truly believe that their hard work, persistence and passion will be the recipe for success.

After speaking with many inspiring entrepreneurs, the most common statement we faced was, ‘I don’t know where to start’. We’ll share with you our steps of how we went from the first ‘Let’s start a business’ conversation to collecting the first order. Two words can summarize it all: HARD WORK.

  • Find your why. Why do you wanting to leave it all and follow your passion? Get to the point where you can write one sentence and always focus everything you do around that.  For instance, we have an obsession to help those in need.
  • Identify your natural talent. This will be your competitive edge.
  • Make a list of all the problems that exist within your industry. If you build a business where its focal point is solving customers’ pain points, you’re set up to win. The two main issues we identified was there’s no marketplace where all purchases give back to charity regardless of the products purchased and consumers had nowhere to discover hard-to-find, emerging brands.
  • Knowledge is king. Become an expert in your space and learn what has and hasn’t worked. Do not reinvent the wheel. Follow the facts and the numbers because they never lie.
  • Ask strangers about your concept. This is the single most important thing to do in building a product or business. You need to get outside your walls and ask others.
  • Visually build out your business. Do this the most inexpensive and minimal way possible. This is your minimum viable product. The first version of Hucksley started on a PowerPoint presentation.
  • Get your hands dirty and get something out to the world. Founder of Linkedin, Reid Hoffman once said, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” Don’t worry about building the ideal business that you’re dreaming of. Edit, revise and replace along the way.

If you woke this morning without a true desire, quickly reignite your passion and make a plan on how you’re going to turn your dream into a reality. Life is too short to settle. All it takes is hard work and believing in your passion, the rest will always work itself out.

How did you push yourself to make the leap into entrepreneurship?

IMG_7486About the guest bloggers: Mike Arrieta and Brett Hagler met in their middle school locker room. After graduating college, they both took great jobs in the corporate world until they took a missions trip to Haiti and they knew their lives would never be the same. Hucksley was born. 

 

 

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