Finding a Partner
I'm currently pursuing an official diagnosis for AS at age 33 while working for a small software company here in Portland. I'm reasonably certain that I have it, just haven't had the money to get diagnosed yet. I'm actually not in management, I'm a software engineer since 1998. I'm looking for advice about how to find a partner to help me market and sell my own software.
I have a lot of problems related to having split up with my ex wife in 2001 and associated child support and having been in spite of being the most experienced, skilled and knowledgeable person on my teams, continually fired from almost every job I've ever had, usually for social or political reasons. I've always been aware of this social/political situation, but never understood why or how to correct it. I still don't, although I'm hoping a better understanding of AS may help.
Throughout the entire time that I've spent chasing all these jobs that I've lost, I've also continued to work on my own projects in the hopes that I might be able to start my own business. I've been aware for a while that I'm probably not the best person to sell my own software, so in the past 7 years I've continually attempted to try and locate a sales / marketing / business partner to help me with those aspects of the business. Unfortunately I've had no success at that either. So what I'm looking for now is information about how to meet sales / marketing / business oriented people to potentially partner with. I'm thinking perhaps that I've not met enough of them, I don't normally socialize with them, and so my opportunities have been limited. If I can increase the number of them I meet, then maybe more opportunities will yield a result.
There's one other concern and that's something that was mentioned in the "reasons for failure" thread in the Entrepreneurship forum. I know that like other aspies, I'm not wired to be a suspicious person -- heck, I was explaining this to people years ago long before I ever knew anything about autism, by telling them that my "trust system" is reversed, "trust first, then revoke" (and it's honestly difficult to get my trust revoked) whereas most people are "watch first, trust later once it's 'earned'".
From the other thread: "Trusting others is something I have found harder to overcome, as it is innate for someone with Asperger syndrome. I think that this is a really hard issue to address because we [people with AS] are not programmed to want to be distrustful; its totally against out nature. ... This impacts upon issue No.3: forming business relationships. These have got to be objective and devoid of altruism. As we are not pre-disposed towards doing this, this can be even harder."
So the concern is that I choose a partner who, while I understand they will have the same need for profit that I have, won't try to steal my ideas and leave or take over the company and kick me out.
Thanks in advance for any ideas / suggestions you might have about places to go, people to contact and things to do to meet potential partners.
ike
Finding Your Own way
Ike
Firstly, well done for starting your own business and having the courage to have a go.
Being UK based I can't ofer any advice on how to find a suitable business partner.
However, I think that you should do what you are doing with developing software: have a try and go with your intuition.
I understand the concerns you have but, at times, I think that we do make things more complicated than they really are!
We are who we are and cannot change things. We also have distinct qulaities that offer advantages that others don't.
I think you should reach out to those that offer and see where it takes you. The progress that I have made in business, and with having AS, has largely come from learning from the lessons that emanate from experience.
If one lead or contact doesn't work out, move on and try with someone else. It WILL work out for you in the end if you are persistant and brave enough.
Good luck.
Malcolm
Hey thanks Malcom, :) I
Hey thanks Malcom, :)
I kept forgetting to get back here to the forum to reply to this... Been busier lately than I thought I was or expected to be, and somehow this site kept getting coincidentally put on the bottom of my mental queue...
Anyway -- your advice here is actually mirrored in a book I read not too long ago called the Luck Factor, and was actually a good portion of my research for a book I wrote recently called Ike's Wager -- which I've realized I want to revise a little more before I publish. heh... My book is a layman's book which collects a bunch of seemingly unrelated information and relates it all -- the Luck Factor was actually written by a clinical psychologist by the name of Richard Wiseman (UK based I believe), who spent about a decade studying the subject of luck, which is pretty unusual for even a clinical psychologist. But what he discovered in the long run was that basically what all the self-help gurus have been saying about staying positive and putting yourself out there and networking and not giving up really does work.
Though much of it (not all of it mind you) is either new to me or things that I never wanted to or always had difficulty putting into action, like making sure to keep in contact with people when you haven't heard from them in a while to maintain a larger social network. So I'm working on that among other things. :) Of course the post here is obviously self-interested, and I've been also trying to post this question (or a similar question) in several other places to increase my chances of getting some crucial advice. :)
Anyway, I did want to thank you for your response. :)
ike
http://cafepress.com/anupwardspiral
http://smolderingremains.deviantart.com
Getting Things Moving
I want to re-visit this discussion as I would appreciate any advice that anyone may have about kick-starting a small business/consultancy.
As readers will know I have been visiting a number of major organisations to discuss the content from my Transitions Project with Nottingham University. The feedback so has been good and there is, I think, quite a bit of genuine interest.
However, I am now at the stage whereby I need to "make it happen" by closing a deal and bringing it to fruition. I feel that maybe my innate honesty (as a result of my Asperger) may be a slight hinderance in this; in other words, I am not overtly commercial enough.
Any views of related suggestions for this would be most welcome.
Staying the Course
Ike
No problem.
The major Sunday newspaper here in the UK - The Sunday Times - has a regular piece in its Business section called "Making it Happen". Its basically about entrepreneurs who make a load of money and how they did it.
Its a favourite piece of mine. The common demominator is how they all stick at it come what may, despite at times, very serious fallbacks. In the end though they always come through even though most of the business ideas are not very original.
I am not sure that you "that" much business acumen to succeed: just an understanding of the basic principles.
Are there no govt agencies there who can offer some free start-up advice. There are a number here in the UK like Business Links.
You can do it because........... a key Asperger trait is that we are persistent!
The forum system here is
The forum system here is interesting. It has some good ideas, like the little bar that lets me change the size of the comment area, but it's also a bit unintuitive. One thing in particular is that this form I'm using right now doesn't have a "submit" or "send" or "say it" button at the bottom, only the "preview comment" button... I'm guessing there was some assumption that everyone should preview their comments before the post them, but I think in practice it probably results in a lot of comments not making it to the forum because the person posting it doesn't read the text of the button. Most people don't actually (which is talked about in Alan Cooper's books, "the Inmates Are Running the Asylum" and "Don't Make Me Think"), they just press it out of habit, expecting it to send the text. So I suspect a number of folks aren't getting their comments onto the forum because they press the "preview comment" button, expecting to be done with it and then move on to something else, not realizing that their comment hasn't been posted. The reason I'm mentioning it now is because I'd already composed this reply yesterday and just now realized it didn't make it to the forum.
Aaaaaaargh!
- Charlie Brown
:)
Anyway... that's enough of that. :) Yes, I've always been pretty determined to accomplish my goals. :)
There are some organizations here that help people with start-ups. A couple years ago I did manage to find a state run organization and made an appointment and spoke to an older, retired businessman who was volunteering his time to the program. He was a nice guy, but it turned out that his suggestions were things I either didn't qualify or couldn't afford. I think there's kind of an assumption at least here in the US that anyone who's going to start a business (or who should) will be financially stable, have good credit and seed the business with some of their own disposable income. None of which has ever been true for me. Maybe I should look into incubators again. The last time I looked into incubators I was in Florida or Texas and there weren't any nearby who would work with a business before it's first round of investments, so basically you had to have already had an angel investor first. Finding an angel of course is a whole other story. :)
http://cafepress.com/anupwardspiral
http://smolderingremains.deviantart.com
Site Revisions
Ike
Thank you for the comments.
I am having some issues with the site at the moment which I am trying to resolve.
I will let everyone know shortly.
Kind regards
Malcolm
Hi there Maybe you should
Hi there
Maybe you should try to locate a marketing firm first, and then branch out from there?
Thanks Whiskery ... My
Thanks Whiskery ...
My experience with marketing agencies thus far is that their primary interest is in creating ad campaigns w/ an upfront contract & payment. I.e. you pay the company x and they create a series of radio / tv commercials and magazine adds and there are usually some kind of metrics to measure their success so that if it doesn't meet some minimum metric they either give you more of their time or they reimburse some of the up-front fee (or discount remaining fees)... And there are some companies which describe themselves as outside "sales" companies that work fairly similarly -- the distinction between them being that marketing agencies don't have any direct contact with the target customers whereas sales companies will actually talk directly to them and attempt to close a sale. I haven't had any luck (at least yet) with suggesting to either any kind of arrangement that wouldn't involve an upfront fee on my part, which I can't afford. heh. :)
Though I do appreciate the suggestion. :)
ike
http://cafepress.com/anupwardspiral
http://smolderingremains.deviantart.com