Everyone seems to be "working on a startup".<...>
Some of these people actually are working on a startup, whereas others are just following a trend and proclaiming this fact.
And those individuals that are doing neither of these, are probably secretly dreaming and wishing that they'd be startup entrepreneurs too.
What does it actually mean to be "working on a startup"?
As a tech community, we have popularized this phrase (amongst so many others) that it has become the mainstream mantra that it is today.
Well, I've become disillusioned with the phrase and what we have turned startups into.
I might be a little bit late to this bandwagon (as other, clever minds in my network have already realized this), but "working on a startup" doesn't really say or mean anything (of value, at least).
It is easy to say I'm founder of this or that startup, without fully grasping what that actually means.
Beyond this sheep-like mentality (which I may or may not be a little bit too opinionated about), I think it has skewed our perception of what a good (real?) starting point actually looks like.
Don't get me wrong, startups are sexy and whilst being a startup entrepreneur is hard, I love considering myself one.
If I were unattached, I'd bet that it'd make me a little more attractive with the ladies.
That's the extent to which I like the idea of working on a startup of my own.
But if your genesis is a desire to work on a startup (with all the mainstream hoopla that surrounds the concept), you are possibly missing a couple of fantastic and alternative starting points.
So instead of "working on a startup", consider starting with one of these premises:
A startup is nothing more than a vehicle.
And "working on a startup" should be nothing more than a mindset that you apply to any stage of a business.
It's about being confused, pursuing scaleable and repeatable processes, and disrupting whatever status quo.
It is however never a starting point itself.
On the day you're born, you don't automatically know what you'd like to do in the rest of your life. Neither do you make any decision in this regard then.
Instead I bet that one of the things listed above, ultimately shapes what you end up doing.
And sometimes that leads to being a startup entrepreneur at which time it's okay to be working on your startup.
Until then, consider an alternative start.