by Alexis Schroeder
Starting a media company in an economic recession (when media is changing dramatically as it is) isn’t the smartest idea in the world. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but not the smartest.
Right when the economy was tanking two years ago, I left my job to start NPi. Most people thought I was crazy. A handful of people did not. They were worried for me, sure, but knew I’d figure something out. If it didn’t work, I could go back into the job market, bad as the economy is. Having a few people rooting for me made all the difference. I turned to them when the going got rough and chatted with them about all the challenges we faced, the most fun being those we had no idea existed. But mostly, I counted on them having faith in me when the rest of my world didn’t.
In the beginning when strangers asked, “What do you do?” (because this is the #1 question on the East Coast), I’d say I worked for a startup media company. I’d give more information if someone asked for it. And many folks (certainly not everybody, but many folks) would respond with something like, “That’s ambitious,” or “How are you going to do that?” or “But you haven’t gone to business school.” This is when you answer with something short and similarly dismissive: “Well, we have some ideas,” smile, and quickly change the subject. Then you tell yourself you’re a capable human being and decide you don’t care what other people think of your very big, but not entirely crazy plans.
You let people think you’re a fool, laugh along with them, and then go work very hard at that seemingly impossible thing. You trust yourself all the while.
Two years later, with a small library of media on the website and well-attended community events, I still feel like a fool, but for different reasons. The goal is different now. The goal of course keeps moving.
We no longer want to start a media company. We’ve sort of done this already. Now I want something bigger and even more ambitious: the means to roll out our business plan in full and take the company to scale. We need startup capital since we’re still an early stage company. We need an individual or company to support us so we can get up and running full-time and keep telling good stories all across America. We believe it’s possible to create a media company dedicated to social justice and civic engagement that also makes money.
As a startup founder, I’m continually learning that you’ve got to be willing to be perceived as a bit of a fool to some acquaintances, friends, and even colleagues. And it doesn’t really stop until the goals stop being so big and tricky to pull off. It’s not especially fun looking or feeling foolish, but I try to remember what Anne Lamott says, “It’s good to be uncomfortable. It’s weight-training for life.” It’s just further affirmation of that hard truth we first learned in junior high school: some people are going to like you and some won’t. Some people are going to understand you and find your ideas valuable and some won’t. In the meantime, you get to practice self-confidence, refine your model, and keep working on all the things you love.
Anne Lamott quotation from the essay, “Holding On” in Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith.
