Beware the Grieving Entrepreneur

Beware the Grieving Entrepreneur

Firstly, I’d like to tip my cap to anyone who has written a blog on a consistent basis. In fact, even once -. I’ve sat in front of this laptop for about 2 hours now and written two lines!

I am or was the “Grieving Entrepreneur” in question. The title is not meant as a threat; I’m not lurking around the corner waiting to pounce on you looking for investment…yet.

After my mother and father died in January 2013 and October 2014 respectively, I had a Jerry Maguire type desk flip moment and quit my job to try and change the world! Actually, if I’m honest, directly after the death of each of my parents, I had two Ron Burgundy-esque moments where I put all the scotch scotch scotch, down in my belly — to numb the pain, avoid the grief and fool myself into thinking I was alright. And then I flipped the proverbial desk.

I am the founder of Pint Aid, a rewards-based crowdfunding platform that fundraises for community-based charities.

I started Pint Aid because I wanted to do some good in this world.

I started Pint Aid because I think we can all do more to help those in need.

I started Pint Aid because I believe that smaller community based charities deliver more tangible results.

I started Pint Aid because excessive alcohol consumption ruins lives.

I started Pint Aid because I was tired of taking and wanted to give something back.

I have made so many mistakes since I launched Pint Aid. Like, ALL the mistakes. Every single one of them has hurt on a personal and professional level. Without these mistakes though there is minimal scope for learning.

If I’m being honest, quitting my job and starting Pint Aid was not just part of my grieving process, but fundamental to it. My parents, a retired Doctor and Nurse, were the most generous people and their default setting was to help others. By establishing Pint Aid, I felt I was getting closer to my parents, closer to the values that they had instilled in me, closer to being the kind of person that they wanted me to be.

What began as a grieving process has resulted in me becoming an entrepreneur. Hand on heart though; I have neither grieved fully for the loss of my parents (I’m not sure that this is even possible?) nor can I call myself a successful entrepreneur. I am, on the right path on both counts though.

Through sheer determination, will power and energy I have managed to get Pint Aid to where it is now. This is not where it belongs though. We are in the middle of a massive body of work to improve the user experience of our mobile applications and website.

We are finalising partnerships with a number of emerging Irish businesses as part of our Donor Reward System

We are changing our focus, will increase the length of our campaigns for charities and will work with multiple charities concurrently.

As stated, without the volume of mistakes that I made, I would not have understood how to improve Pint Aid, how to ensure that it realises its significant potential.

I was naïve in thinking that I could just go out and help people, change the world and that because of the purity of my notions and their genuine altruistic origins that the people would follow!

Some have. Most haven’t. The reason being is that Pint Aid’s not good enough. Yet. We are getting there though — slower than I had hoped but probably quicker than most expected.

I am 20 months into a lifelong journey. I want to help people. Pint Aid has helped people. It will help a lot more people once we raise our game and deliver the refined goods.

It took me 33 years to realise what I wanted to do with my life. It unfortunately also took immense loss and a period of enormous grief to ignite the embers inside me and spark this journey that I find myself on.

I believe in myself.

I believe that I am on the right path.

I believe that Pint Aid can be a mechanism for empathy and altruism.

I believe that Pint Aid can help to foster a stronger sense of community.

We are roughly 4 weeks away from launching the revised apps, website and processes that will significantly improve Pint Aid and the services that we can provide to charities, donors and partners.

I offer my sincere thanks to all that have supported me thus far, be it through social media, attending our events, donating to our campaigns or all three. It means the world to me.

I also thank those who have not supported Pint Aid. The people who do not follow us on social media, attend our events or donate to our causes. I failed to present you with a compelling reason to get involved.

I am using this failure to better myself, Pint Aid and ultimately the lives of others.

Truman Capote said: “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour”, I’m hopeful that Pint Aid is about to taste really fucking good!