Flipped through this hip ebook, listing 100 startup people from Berlin in 2014. Hundred people, that’s a lot. Hundred startups, that’s, yeah, a lot.
A lot of ideas a hundred, not a surprise therefore that most of the ideas are very similar. “Disrupting the e-commerce scene of blablabi”. (Call it a webshop, shall we?) A new social network platform (for some boring niche). A cutting edge (recipe book) app.
I’m excited about tackling this problem. Let’s make life better together.
Is the new off-license around the corner a startup as well then? Well it kind of should count, though they are making money. Because, as it seems, most of the upstarts will never, ever going to make any money (apart from the amount raised from angel investors).
But then, if all these startups are going to fail, or at least the better part of them, why are the ideas so similar and mundane? Why not starting something actually exciting, that makes you want to wake up every day?
Create something impossible. Try stuff out. Make mistakes. Learn from them.
Well, I have the answer actually. I’m in the same shoes.
We start mundane startups, because we don’t know any better. We are blind to difficult problems, and let’s face it: it’s ways easier to just start an Airbnb for dogs, than finding out what we really want.
What we really-really want.
Having recently turned 30 and having spent my twenties learning, travelling and experimenting, I only know a few parameters. I want to help people. Want to do something new. Want to learn more.
(And I’ve already started four companies, so ’just a startup’ is not that exciting.)
As for the purpose of life, I have no idea just yet. I have met people who can surf every day while running an Airbnb spot next to the ocean. And a painter guy living on a house boat in London. They inspire me very much.
As a tool to find out what to do next, we are starting this magazine and community of creative thinkers: Yakuzuzu. Maybe, if we interview enough smart people, we can find the best life for ourselves.
Guys, come with me. Let’s write, take photos, travel and find the most inspiring people out there. Let’s make Yakuzuzu together.
Let’s s find the purpose of our lives.