Diary of an Economic Crisis Survivor

Life, Death and Miracles of a Startup, in the Italy of the Economic Crisis

Tag: birth

28 April 2014

7. Plan to Survive

APRIL 28, 2014, h.19:26

DAY 72

Tomorrow we go on a mission.

I’ll go out there and I’ll be alone, disoriented and frightened: I expect a major test for my career .

diario-di-un-sopravvissuto-alla-crisi-startup-team-programmazione-crisis-survivor-performance-strategia

Tomorrow I’ll find out if I’m really good at work or if mine were just words.

In short . While Italy dreams of defeating once and for all the Great C, guided by the strategies of the new commander Renzi, I ‘ll be engaged in a “boss morning”. This practice, that maybe exists only in  the consultant company where I work, consists in the evaluation of the employees by specific tests, presentations and achievements, all in the same morning.

There are 3 of us. The best gets to move to a higher category. And then also an increase. And then even more money.                     And then even more funds for my startup .

This career move could mean a lot for me. To face the test, I started to prepare myself six months ago. And the most important thing I’ve done during this time was to plan what I needed to do. Seriously it was not easy to reconcile work (Priority 1), my startup(Priority 2) and the test (Priority 3). Even the Italian government has scheduled its performance, strategically placing a reform per month.

The plan was also done for my startup of course:

Putting in order tasks to accomplish, establishing priorities for action, but also setting deadlines and milestones (and respecting them) and dividing responsibilities. Tim, our handyman, is a valuable element in the economy of the plan of our startup ,because he performs many actions, only that, if he didn’t have a battle plan, he wouldn’t survive. Thus, the plan of the performance of a startup turns out to be another important element in the creation of the same.

Because planning, and then knowing what we face everyday, makes us ready and stronger.

It makes us believe to be able to survive the Great C, in this country where merit has lost life and people smile little, we young startuppers:

keep calm,

believe in ourselves,

and don’t give up.

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14 April 2014

5. Business Model in a time of crisis

MARCH 5, 2014, h.14:13

DAY 18

Yesterday was a good day. For me. For others,  I don’t know.

BUSINESS MODEL

In Eastern Europe the situation doesn’t seem to be good. How is it possible to risk this kind of escalation, in 2014? Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to sit down and discuss it?

On the one hand, Russia is right, because there are the inhabitants of the Crimea claiming a different country(and according to Wikipedia, since 1992 they have been actually been an autonomous republic within Ukraine); on the other hand , there are disproportionate economic interests. On February 19, 1954, Crimea was given by the Soviet leader Khrushchev to the Ukraine, but only since 1989, Russia (URSS no longer) could no longer benefit from the powerful harbour on the Black Sea. Consequently Russia is looking for a way to resume earning from that region.

Strange but true my startup has the same goal: to figure out how to earn.

In a few words, set the business model to implement the business idea: we’re talking about a myriad of variables to bind together with consistency, from the procurement of customers, purchasing real product / service , through the use of forms of sponsorship or B2B . Without this step, any startup is doomed.

We don’t want to work for glory nor charity.

In my short career as a consultant, I’ve heard of entrepreneurs with great business ideas but who are dying from the lack of an effective business model.

To create our model D, our designer, bought a board, one of those with n-sheets.

Since yesterday the magic board is in Nerd per Caso’s home(now it’s not a house anymore, because it has become our startup’s office), and so yesterday we started to design our business model to understand how we can monetize. Simply be able to explain with a drawing, a diagram or a table model, gave us the opportunity to reflect . It’ssomething that I highly recommend to aspiring startuppers like us.

For now, we still see a little darkness, most likely we will try to differentiate the forms of income(although it can be a risky move), but definitely a source of income will be made by Pay Per Click (CLUE No.2).

The point is that:

  • Italy is not Silicon Valley, the home of the successful startup, where the business model works (probably it’s also a matter of entrepreneurial culture and openness to change);
  • Silicon Valley has apparently found a way to fight and defeat the Great C, Italy on the other hand is still in the process of evaluating how to survive the Great C;

 

By the way, the need to monetize it is among the top reasons why you create a startup, so it is an important step that we face; infact only in this way we can continue to have big dreams with our startup( in spite of the Great C).

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2 April 2014

3. The Importance of being a Team

FEBRUARY 25, 2014, h.13:53

DAY 10

dIARY OF A CRISIS SURVIVOR team work

Today I risked. I risked my life in the survival of the Great C.

In a figurative sense, yes. But if it was not for Timothy, would I be here having to work overtime to pay a high tax collection box(which is not correct). 30 years. In Italy.

Luckily I have a group of people to rely on.

I do not know . Maybe in my case the 10 years spent playing basketball, and the subsequent mentality that I have “acquired”: the result of the team is more important than the result of the individual.

Italy , and our young people have forgotten what it means, or rather, we have forgotten this sentence .

At apolitical level, as in the rest of the world, we are tied to a prominent leader (see Berlusconi and Renzi), and not the party and the ideas that embodies them. Moreover, we are so anchored to the idea of ​​Right & Left , which we did not realize how the content of these have become interchangeable.

In Italy in 2014, the things to do are really under the eyes of everyone.

 

Our government will succeed? Only if it manages to work like a team, forgetting hostile strategies and pre-determined negativity for each proposal, being optimistic and aware that we can defeat the Great C.

 

Sharing & Helping .

But even planning, dividing the tasks and responsibilities, establishing and respecting the Deadline.

As you know, when I’m not too busy actively surviving Great C and working, I carry on a business project .

I don’t want to talk about the idea(I’m too scared of being copied and replicated faster than I can develop my own idea ), but as I said earlier, I will tell you steps and essential elements of my career as an aspiring startupper. And maybe, sometimes, I will provide you some clues.

 

Today I am talking about the importance of being a team.

The right balance .

My team consists of 8 people.

Originally we were :

– Romina, called Pigna, not because she looks like one of those things that are on the trees, nor that she’s a drug user, but just because she’s a very fussy person, and not surprisingly she takes deals with the legal, accounting and tax things;

– Francesco, the first developer, who with David (arrived later),we have sadly nicknamed “I Nerd per caso”(in Italy exists a musical group called “I Neri per caso”), our geeks .;

– Vittorio(Victor if you prefere), the undersigned, the managerial figure of the group, called the Astronaut. This will be explained it later.

Then there are added in order :

– Luca, our Marketing Manager, called the Thinker;

– Sofia, the designer, simply D;

– Enrico, the Sales Manager, the man who would be able to sell an Ipad to my grandmother(who died), called The Wolf(references to recent Scorsese film are not random ) ;

– And finally , last but not least, Timothy, called Tim, the all-rounder.

 

Our skills and capabilities are blended with each other , fortunately , and I repeat , fortunately, we have very different ideas among us and we often fight. Which is good .. if we had not had the verve to fight that night, this idea would never have been born (we might have had trouble even if we had not bought the n(which stands for n-number unquantifiable) beers).

 

It’s this desire to ” succeed together “, that will make the difference.

In good times and bad , such as in a marriage. Also because we are aware that from the organizational point of view, for now, we are able to cover any position needed to create a start-up. A recipe created with a good dose of Devolpers , Lawyers & Economists, Advertisers & Dealers, and the right touch of madness (and also on this we will be back) .

 

But back to this morning .

I was at work without the possibility of moving, wrapped between one meeting and another.

Today a Deadline. And I forget to respect it. Submit the application for appeal.

Moments of sheer panic. Then, I managed to think: Timothy. It was enough to give him a call. He perfectly knew perfectly what to do and he did it .

I am safe. At least for now. At least today.

And all thanks to Tim, who in reality is not even called that. But simply embodies so well the idea of ​​team that we couldn’t not nickname him so, Tim( giving credit to the stereotype that we young Italians do not know English—In Italy the pronunciation of Team is the same of Tim). In any case, Tim is in charge of operational aspects(perhaps because is the only unemployed person in the group), with a very Calcuttian availability.

 

Back to work, I used my break to write, this time, outdoors, in a city park, one of those oases(safety points), within this city, scared like many others, from The Great C.

 

dIARY OF A CRISIS SURVIVOR naming

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24 March 2014

2. Be Positive to be Ready

FEBRUARY 20, 2014, h.21:45

DAY 5

Immagine

Another nightmare day.

Wrapped between one job and another, between one order and another, between one shout and another (from my boss).

I’m feeling it. My attitudes and my talents can’t grow and can’t be expressed here. I have had little time to think about my startup project, just a few hours. But I realized that when the fire is burning, it is very hard to blows it out. It’s like the Jovanotti’s song that I heard yesterday morning, while I was going to work, in the hideout of the wolf:

“Io penso positivo, perchè son vivo, perché sono vivo, niente e nessuno al mondo potrà fermarmi dal ragionare, niente e nessuno al mondo potrà fermare, fermare, fermare, fermare..quest’onda che va, quest’onda che viene e che va” (..in few words…”I think positive, because I’m alive”, if you want you can translate the rest of the text).

I don’t know what’s happening. It’s hard just imagining the reasons for this sickness, that has damaged the world of work and us, the brave young men that have decided to stay in Italy, in the period of the advent of the Great C.

Maybe, in 100 years, in history books, rather in history-ebooks, there will be this emigration of young men. Maybe we will study it, like now we study the Italian emigration in the first decade of ‘900(and maybe, in 100 years, there will be a country, where a lot of families have an Italian surname, like Argentina or Uruguay now).

My opinion is that, among all of the causes of this problem, we can find:

  1. The lacking motivation/will/desire of young Italian men between 20 and 35;
  2. The generation that governs Italy doesn’t give attention to us.

Also Renzi’s generation, finds huge difficulty in achieving to help the country: Maybe..is also this generation too old to create innovative and brilliant ideas? Is this generation too full of old patterns that doesn’t realize that the Italian Titanic is sinking?

However, presently, I have faith in the youngest premier of Europe. Stop talking about politics.

The generation in charge, or simply the citizens, haven’t the time(and the “space”) to listen to their creative genius…imagine if they have the time for our ideas:

–>they are too stressed to bring home the bread for the family,

–>they are too stressed to fill the hunger of the tax authorities,

–>they are too stressed to survive the Great C.

How many suicides in Italy from the advent of the Great C?

No one has listened to the prayers of these citizens in pain.

Young Italian men don’t have motivation. You must to search the young Italian men that realize their work dream, starting from the fact that most don’t dream anymore. I have my dream. In my hearth, and in my drawer(does this expression also exist in England?).

In my life the number of  failures is bigger than the number of successes(sometimes when I’m sad I try to remember what a roman friend said to me in the past about failures:“Vittò, questi quando te fanno un colloquio de lavoro, non te chiedono Ahò ma quanto sei bravo…ma te chiedono quante volte hai fallito nella tu vita? se hai pochi fallimenti sei una merda.” Substantially some American managers, during a job interview, appreciate if you have had more failures than successes).

But this time no, we can’t fail…my team and I.

Because we’re motivated, and we have the will to survive.

Without the right motivation your startup can’t go anywhere.

I repeat: will. Like don’t give up in front of the complications, like most of startuppers do.

Even if there are who give up the first time that they explain their entrepreneurial idea: when they realize that this idea is very, very awful.

Everyday my team and I search solutions in our whatsapp group. The threats aren’t missing, like hard moments, when there isn’t nothing to light up the way.

But we’re motivated. We have love and bravery.

And we want to continue, insist, at least try.

We want to be a lot, staying together, doing networking and sharing.

We want to be the exception from the rule.

We want to be pioneer in a sick country.

We want them to come to us to ask where we have found the resources and the forces.

We want to survive the Great C, and we want to do it with success.

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21 March 2014

1. PROLOGUE: Birth of a Startup (and of a Diary)

FEBRUARY 15, 2014 h. 16:30

DAY 1

keep calm and survive crisis diary of a crisis survivor startup team crisis

When I decided to start writing a blog, with great sincerity, I did not expect to be here where I am also on Saturday afternoon.

I was expecting to “find myself inspired to write on top of that hill ” (rather than the sea ), obviously in complete solitude .

However, I am here, where I have spent most time over the last three years: at work, behind a desk.

I want to talk about the life of a young thirty year old Italian worker, but most of all an aspiring startupper (when the work will allow me).

A little information about me: my name is Victor, I love spending my free time with family and friends, now I’m  apolitical and, now, I hate football.

You’ll have to make do with this information to imagine the writer…About my career, I will be more detailed.

After graduating , three years ago, I was cast in a saturated world of work, in Italy, well … at the wrong place at the wrong time .

The first year I was excited about the job, so as not to notice my growing dissatisfaction.

The other two years, instead although I believe enthusiastic about life, have gone not very well. For this reason, I have felt a need for revenge, that I’m trying to satiate with an entrepreneurial project of my own. Of course, in the hours when I’m not working .

For three years now I have been stressed basically by two things, work and my country.

As regards the work, I’m a consultant within a company, and I’m tired of furious rhythms for inadequate rewards, monetary and otherwise. For this reason I’m planning my revenge..creating a Start Up of my own.

Instead Italy..well..I don’t want to pull out the story of “young people have to leave Italy as soon as they can“, but the reasons are all there. I am a young aspiring startupper who wants to live a relaxed life ( family, health, job satisfaction ), but this Italy is not a country for young people(cited above).

Is it because of the economic crisis? Called “The Great C”, from now on.

I do not want to emphasize the concept, but I would rather take the Great C, with the right amount of irony, talking about a Diary of a young man who fights daily to “survive” in a work situation that kills every new attempt: this situation is the Great C  indeed.

My survival of the Great C will be told here, in this blog, indeed, in this diary: I’d like to write about my work  and my emergents entrepreneurial project, but at the same time, do a little ‘ ironically…in short, oscar wilde quote “life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about”.

I want to tell you step by step about my adventure as a young aspirant startupper in an Italy sick to the bone, where everyone and anyone is a zombie that eats society, where everyone and anyone complains more than they actually try to fight the Great C, where everyone and anyone is victim and victimizer, some with more, some with minor faults.

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