In part two of "my startup journey" I told you that I ran an ISP called Iranian. I talked about stages, decisions and events which I call them failure or success.
In this part, I'm gonna get in to more detailed things I did during that time, and which actions made me proud of taking them and which left me with loss and regret!

Partnership

having a partner is a great thing in many aspects. you may find yourself and someone like fox and hedgehog... what? haven't heard of that?

It's a term first used by a philosopher whose name was Isaiah Berlin. It was an essay which became very popular that was published as a book later in 1953. Though I'm not a fan of classifications (because they can mislead you in to mistakes like profiling of projection, but some classifications throw light on something; This is one of them!

What it says?

A fox knows many things, while a hedgehog knows one important thing. it's simple. if you are a fox, you can help many businesses, but you probably need an in depth person with ONE knowledge at a considerable level to secure your business sustainability.

In my time of Iranian ISP, I had three hedgehogs by myself, time to time. Working with someone who isn't of your personality can be difficult. You need to be wise to tolerate each other and enjoy the benefits of a partnership. if you are interested in this term, you can read more here or take the test to measure your characteristics here. But should you even care about it or not? I think you should. knowing yourself is the first weapon you should be armed to, to reduce the faults. Knowing your partner's personality comes the next and the last thing which is as a responsibility to everyone in a partnership, is to show the true himself to his/her partner.

Side businesses

I'm not that kind of person who can stay on what business. It's not lack of focus, it's just the fact I can't mentally risk all my time and effort on one nest! well, I think the country I have lived and spent my childhood has a big impact on my investment behavior.

So I have tried many investment options, side businesses and partnerships. I'd like to disclose some:

Passive income

have to confess, I have always been in love with the quote "let your money work for you"!
So as soon as I started my business, I also started to invest my spare money in to speculative things like stocks, gold, currency etc. taking midterm to long-term positions.
While not all the positions ended in profit, I strongly insist to call this experience a SUCCESS in my life. as I can live on my passive income right now, at the age 39 :)

Buying domains

Yes! I bought domains as speculative goods too. but I sold few of them for good prices. I sold some TLD domains for 1000 time more than the money I had paid, but it couldn't become a sustainable investment, so I quit.

My big failure in investing

image source

One of the biggest lessons I learnt during this time, was Never Invest in a Business, you don't Understand
and if you think it's obvious and I'm stupid to learn this, losing 15.000 bucks, let me tell you HOW WRONG you are! very wrong!! Business interest comes with a seduction beyond imagination. well, sometimes... You meet someone, he has the ability to convince others, has the expertise in something and other points...?
Are you going to invest in his/her business?

Ask below questions, before you tap your card, on the table!!

1. do you have enough knowledge of this business? if yes, step to Q.2
2. how old is he/she?! why he/she with these expertise, doesn't have enough capital at this age?
   if still you find no problem, step to Q.3
3. why his/her family and close friends haven't invested in?? well, if still you want to keep on, go to Q.4
4. how can you trust him/her, and how secure is you investment?

and finally:

No. Five: isn't there really any other options to invest in with more security and less risk?

back those days, I invested in a catering company, which was nothing about my knowledge and experience, and I just thought it's a good market, great demand etc... I secured some of my money with bank guarantees, bank cheques etc, but nothing could stop me of losing almost all of my money.

well, it was an expensive lesson.

in the next post, I'm gonna talk about the KISS law and the importance of learning everyday!
I also will share how a simple client, made me pay 5000 USD in the court, while I was a victim of a fraud action!