A couple of weeks ago I made a trip from Dos Hermanas, where I live, to Jerez de la Frontera. A trip by train. I have always liked train trips; since I was a child and up to now they have evoked something special in me, which right now I would define as the pleasant feeling of going off to discover a part of myself that sat at the limits of what I usually do.
In this case I went at the invitation of several friends, to spend the saturday there with them. The plan: start in the morning, keep them company while they rehearsed for the concert, then a walk and lunch near the beach in El Puerto de Santa María, and then talk about our projects. Nothing better to get inspired and get your strength back. A real «mini» holiday!
I took the train in the morning, I brought the e-book reader with me, and I spent the trip enjoying it with the book I am reading: «The Soul Of Leadership» by Deepak Chopra. I recommend it to anyone who wants to become aware of his responsibility towards himself and towards others. It reminded me of «The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People» by Stephen Covey , but this book struck me as much more concise, and in a way I got some of the answers I have been asking myself this year, along with others the book raises… «Am I really doing what I want to do?» «How can I bring my team together?» «What do I have to change in myself to be the source of the change?» «Where does leadership come from?»
We go for lunch to El Puerto de Santa María, a restaurant right on the beach front, a magnificent place to enjoy with friends on a sunny day in August and with the view of the sea in front.
«Tapas with Emma and Pablo in El Puerto»
On the way back, we stopped at a bakery to buy some pastries, and we went to spend the afternoon at the pool. Pablo brought out some water polo goals, other friends joined in, and there we were: «Water polo afternoon».
Emma is also working on a new project of which she is a founding partner: We Work English, «WE», whose new design for the page is in preparation as of today. «WE» has been running for several months with the vision of training people to prepare their curriculum, their English training, and set off to work in the United Kingdom.
Emma collaborated at the beginnings of UniversidadQuantum, and I was lucky enough that we worked together, along with other members of my team, until a year ago at the company we were all part of before starting our own projects. I value Emma for her creativity and her ability to make decisions, among other things, so while we were talking about what my next steps were, I mentioned to her the idea of creating a blog.
In these last few months I have read everything about startups that came into my hands, and lately I have followed several blogs, among them the blog of Brad Feld http://www.feld.com. Feld is an investor (Venture Capitalist) and the author of several books about startups, such as Startup Communities.
Startup Communities by Brad Feld
Feld writes about everything on his blog, from everything related to his field, experiences investing in technology companies, but also something that caught my attention. He talks openly about his personal life and about how he got over the beginnings of a depression after an injury this year. His authenticity inspired me to give this blog a turn, and to write about my experience creating a startup devoted to education with a technological base.
I came back from the trip to Jerez empowered by this idea. The idea of creating the story of UniversidadQuantum, of building the vision of a company where we are a reference for high quality MOOC courses, free ones as well as paid ones. We are willing to innovate. And with this article the story begins.
We have all heard of successful startups, and listened to their stories once they have become big companies, be it Apple, Facebook, AirBNB, Dropbox, or so many other companies talked about on Hacker News. But it occurred to me to create something different, to write authentically about my experience in the world of entrepreneurship, the way Feld does, and to show the day to day of creating UniversidadQuantum, now that we are in its initial construction.
We are 9 months behind in Quantum with respect to our latest launch estimates, until we launched in beta in august, and it has been hard for me to keep the vision of the project. There have been moments of demotivation, of not being sure of the road to take, as well as moments when nobody seemed to believe in the project, or in my ability to carry it out. Changing that has required an inner process of choosing which road to take, no matter how, and of taking steps however small. Each step has created in me enough strength for UniversidadQuantum to be up and running, with new teachers joining us and with several courses in preparation.
Get yourself to write and comment; this is for me an opportunity to talk openly about everything, since it is not comfortable for me to show that not everything is a bed of roses, and I suppose it is not for any entrepreneur. As my friend Manuel says, the entrepreneur tends to show that image of strength and confidence, of being able with everything, and we sometimes do not allow ourselves to show another, more vulnerable side.
But how else could we learn from experience?
Welcome to this trip. In this new stage we are going to create a vision: that of the successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur in Europe.