100 days self-employed - or the rediscovery of the rollercoaster
from Michael Pertek at
In February 2023, we founded Diselva AG - diselva for short. A group of ten experienced digital experts who euphorically set off together on the path to self-employment in order to guide customers through the digital transformation. Perhaps starting a company is a little like having children. It takes a good dose of positive naivety to embark on this worthwhile adventure - without knowing in advance exactly what it really means. But in short: it's worth it!
After the first 100 days, I would like to take the liberty of drawing a first, grateful conclusion - the euphoria has not gone away. Even though I thought I had already seen a lot with a good 25 years of professional experience and company management, many new thoughts and perspectives have emerged, which is hardly surprising in retrospect.
It feels right
It feels wonderful to be independent. Making your own - correct - decisions and being able to work with the right people who get stuck in and do the right thing. Doing the right thing for customers without having to fulfil meaningless KPIs. Listening, understanding - and doing the right thing - even saying "no" sometimes.
But what is the right thing to do? The right thing is what feels good to me. What is in harmony with my understanding of values and culture - and that is the great, unpaid - sorry, priceless - benefit of self-employment. Getting up every morning and going to work with joy - having a "big hairy audacious goal" that has stayed with me for years.
It makes me a little proud to be able to look back after 100 days and see that something has been created together. Market presence, service portfolio, structures, ad hoc assignments, customer relationships and the first successful projects. Being independent means having to make your own decisions, moving out of your comfort zone and taking risks. But it also means being able to take advantage of opportunities and develop them further. The best thing - all ten of us are still on board and customers are happy to see us, we laugh a lot and the big worries are quickly replaced by the important things in professional life, such as choosing the right coffee beans and philosophies on waste separation.
Rollercoaster of emotions
Coming from larger companies, a little more distance to work, content, customers and results develops over time. Success and failure are smoothed out by large figures (turnover, number of customers, number of employees, etc.) and a healthy degree of anonymity and delegation of responsibility.
It's different with ten people, with nine like-minded people. It's more intense. Every event hits like a meteorite. Every little success makes your heart beat faster and gives you the feeling of being on the right (there it is again) path. Everyone has played their part, everyone feels like a winner and the world doesn't seem big enough.
Every failure, every postponement (how can CS trigger such disruptions, especially in our start-up phase), every delay and cancellation lead you straight into the valley of tears. Doubts about the decision, uncertainty about your own abilities, worries about your existence and your own failure - if it weren't for nine others and a network that has spun together almost invisibly over almost 20 years. The encouragement, the chance to pitch again, to offer, to talk intensively about direction, USP and delivery capabilities, to get new opportunities and to suffer and celebrate together as diselva founders and to rebuild and reassure each other every day - to do the right thing.
It's like a rollercoaster ride that doesn't want to end. But the adrenaline, the marvellous view from the highest peak and the tingling in my stomach compensate for the rapid but fortunately finite descents and create a feeling of actually being able to go to work every day with joy and a smile. It is a real pleasure for me to be able to take this step with diselva and gain unique experiences.
Reverie, values and insights
The dream of self-employment and having your own company has become a reality. Values form the irrefutable foundation, but they don't earn money on their own - unfortunately. Going through the world with open eyes and ears in a self-determined way helps tremendously to gain insights that are sometimes banal, sometimes surprising, usually enlightening but always explanatory. We are in the comfortable position of being met with interest, appreciation and a broad understanding of our offering among customers - this, combined with the need to consistently take steps forward in the digital transformation, is an extremely profitable mix.
When a company starts up without its own legacy - like diselva - and therefore has a high degree of flexibility, commitment and willingness to cooperate, the perspective on some topics changes dramatically. In the second part of my blog series on the first 100 days, I will talk about our "Business Insides": Skills shortages, maturity in digitalisation and the challenges of being able to implement projects agilely and quickly in companies - or in other words "why things don't go as smoothly as desired after all...".
