I stopped waiting for permission

Nobody ever gave me permission to start.

For a long time I thought that was the problem.

Now I think it was the best thing that happened to me.

The yes that never comes

There was nobody in my family who ran a business. Nobody to ask how it was done. Nobody to lend me money, and no contacts who could.

So I did what you do at twelve when nobody is watching. I built my first website. With free online courses, at night, on my own.

Nobody approved it. Nobody graded it. It worked or it didn't.

Years later, in spring 2013, I registered as self-employed in Olot. I didn't even have a trade name ready. In the activity description I wrote "software as a service". Nobody asked me if I was sure. Which was lucky, because I wasn't.

And in 2014 Foxnice started with 300 €. Not one euro from anyone else.

If I'd waited for someone to say "go", I'd still be waiting. Probably filling in a form.

The many shapes of permission

The funny thing is that permission keeps coming back in disguise.

Sometimes it looks like a grant. You have a project ready, but you wait for the public money before starting. And the public money takes its time, as public money does.

Sometimes it looks like an investor. The idea is good, but it'll be "real" when someone puts money in it.

Sometimes it looks like validation. A prize. An article. A friend who works at a big company saying "that's interesting".

They're all the same thing. Someone else holding the key to your calendar.

Every time you wait for permission, you hand someone else the right to decide when you start.

I've felt the pull of all three. Waiting feels responsible. It feels like prudence. Most of the time, I think, it's just fear dressed up for an interview.

What I do instead

I don't have a method. I have a question.

Can a client pay for this?

If the answer is yes, I don't need anyone else's yes. The client's is the only one that matters. It's the most honest validation that exists: someone who has a problem and puts their own money on you fixing it.

That's why our services pay for our products. It isn't romantic. It's the only way I know to build something without asking anyone's leave.

And when a client is the one stuck waiting, for a grant or for a committee, I'd rather look for a way to start now and recover the cost slowly than spend a season in a queue with them. Maybe it goes wrong. But if it does, it'll be our mistake, made on our schedule.

I can live with that. What I can't live with anymore is waiting.

The price

I won't pretend it's free.

Without permission there's also no safety net. No one to share the blame with. No board to tell you that you're wrong before it's too late. Yeray does that job, and does it well, but there's no committee behind us.

And it's slower. Patient money is patient for a reason.

But slow and ours beats fast and someone else's. At least for me.

At twelve I didn't know any of this. I just didn't have anyone to ask.

It turns out that was the lesson.

P.S. You don't need my permission either. But if it helps: granted.