Start up Story 1#
I was working in a company when it suddenly got sold and the employees were payed off. I was suddenly out of a job. It was strange not to work, when you have worked all your live. Luckily I live in the Netherlands, witha good social system, and a husband that earns as well, which meant I did not have to worry immediately about money. I am also quite sensible, I got rid of the car, daycare, cleaner etc... al luxuries out of the door, buy groceries cheaply. Actually it almost becomes fun. The children loved it, they had a stay at home mum, but I was slowly becoming more and more unhappy. I used to be somebody. When you are unemployed you realise, how much of your self worth comes from what you do, achieve, or produce at work. One of the worst moment were parties, or when I met new people, they don't ask you, who are you, no the first question out of their mouth is, what do you do? I am quite recalcitrant and always answered, I do nothing.......and then again I do a lot.
It took me 6 months to realise that who I am is not what I do. I am, and that is enough. That might sound strange, but it took me this time to just become who I am, not to get my self-esteem from work, or to transfer this emotion to how well my children are doing.
Then an opportunity presented itself. My background in chemistry led me to a professor I knew very well, and he wanted to bring one of his inventions to the market. I never thought I would start a start-up, but it felt completely natural to take on the task. Luckily, I was not alone, another woman with a background in cell-biology and formally a director of marketing was excited to become CEO, and I, with my chemistry and project management background would do the operational part. It took us a year to get enough subsidies to find a lab to start making the new polymer together with a another chemist. January last year we moved into a lab, and there we stood the three of us, looking at the daunting task in front of us to make a polymer that needed to compete with a product from really large companies.
to be continued.....