I went to OSU loving startups, ideas, philosophy, and math — but sitting with a textbook didn't feel like building anything. I wanted real-world business experience, so I left school with the intention of creating technical companies.
First, I got in the arena the hard way: I started a pressure washing and window cleaning business. It was a way to learn simple, real business skills — customers, quotes, employees, follow-ups, cash flow. It was fun and cool. It was also hard in ways nobody romanticizes.
I didn't have a system to operate. Direction was fuzzy. I was juggling a million things at once. Every day, something sat in the back of my head and wouldn't shut off — because I was the only place the business lived. Remember, organize, don't drop the ball. The to-do list grew longer; energy for the actual jobs, the team, the clients, and the follow-ups got thinner. Less executional power. That hurt the company — and it ate time I could have spent growing the business or being with the people who mattered.
There were doubts. The monthly grind of making it work. The fear that chaos was just “part of being a founder.” Starting for the skills was right. Staying stuck in the mess wasn't.
So I didn't stay there forever. I'm back on the horse — back toward what I'm good at and where I see the most value: helping other founders in the 0 → 1 phase build with more clarity than I had when I was learning it the expensive way.