Who are you working for?

For the past few years, I was extremely timid when approaching the business of any venture or interest I had.

When I begin a new journey, a new business or a new venture, I often reflect on the critical moments of the past. It’s important to reflect on the past when making big decisions because there are undoubtedly wrong decisions which you made. And now, with the future in front of you, you could well be making the same mistakes as before.

In 2019, I began what would be the worst business idea ever. At the time, I was flooded with creativity. I became immersed in Hip Hop and R’n’B music. I bought my own mini DJ deck for £200, downloaded Serato DJ, and started making a few mixes.

Eventually, after some travel and some inspiration, I began my own DJ collective with a few friends.

What began as a way to meet people, get involved in the university campus and have fun quickly turned into a stressful form of slavery and destitution. When you start something new, your naivety is quickly revealed to you: you make mistakes, you fall and you trip —but what matters more is how you get back up and who is willing to stick around to see you get up.

Admittedly, I knew nothing about marketing. I knew nothing about the demands or the ‘state of the market’. All I knew was how to make good DJ mixes, how to create posters and ads, and how to make a party. I didn’t know anything about competition. I just wanted to have fun.

When you start a project, you have to be absolutely sure the people you surround yourself with don’t have alterier motives. One common motive that people have for anything is money. If someone you are about to work with only cares about having money and spending money then you are truly and totally fucked.

If that partner is your best friend, then he also has a personal hand in your business. Any mistakes or hindrances he makes will be passed off since —after all —he is your friend and could never let you down. If he doesn’t like the direction or the management or how much money he is getting and demands to leave (unless he gets a raise), you will beg for him to stay (and give him his unearned raise).

If you want to start a project, first, keep it quiet. Second, watch closely at the ‘friends’ around you. Third, ask yourself “Would they sell you out? Would they trade you for something else? Money? Girls? Popularity?”

If the answer is “Yes” to any of those questions —fourth, finally ask yourself “If I start this project with these guys, am I doing this for the customer who needs me or am I just trying to hold these relationships that will inevitably fail in the future?”

Of course, I am speaking from experience and all of these questions are much harder to answer in hindsight —especially when you’re a naive 19-year-old like I was.

I tried to bring my idea to my university campus, but there were many setbacks, most of which are my fault. Disagreements between me and my friends over the direction of events started to unearth themselves: I wanted to DJ at any event possible, even if that meant negotiating the music I played, I just wanted to get the name out there. In business, when you start, you can’t pick and choose which customers you work with if you have few options. You have to start somewhere.

With friends comes personal disagreements too (I won’t get into that here).

The biggest challenge was negotiating with the competition. I was just a new kid on the block —zero experience— but I had a lot of courage and a lot of drive to bring something. I came from no money. I was poor. I used what I had and took what I got.

Lastly, people in the UK are eager to see you fail. If in Dubai, or perhaps the USA, if you drive a nice car people will congratulate you. If you do the same thing in the UK, people will be jealous and out of that jealousy comes suspicion: “He must be selling drugs” or “He must have stolen that money”. You can’t put your success out there or show people any steps of success you are making because they will turn on you — people get hungry.

So, when starting a project, ask yourself: “Who are you working for?”. Are you working for the customer? Or, are you working for the guy who’s got a hand in your pocket and another hand around your girlfriend?

I didn’t want my project to be a business. I wanted it to be fun. I didn’t want spreadsheets and graphs. But when people pay money, everyone wants a hand in it. Makes sure you have the best hands around you.

Starting a project requires choosing trustworthy people to work with, and it is crucial to keep personal relationships separate from business. It is essential to ask yourself whether you are working for the customer or for personal gain, and it is wise to keep early success quiet to avoid negative attention.

In retrospect, I have learned that it is crucial to have the right people around you when starting a project, and personal disagreements can often cause issues in business. While I did not want my project to feel like a business, I realized that when people pay money, everyone wants a say, and it is important to have the best hands around you, even if it means cutting a few off.