Startup Journey Log #1: Why I Moved to Paris

“No elevator.”

These words sounded like less of a problem when I read them on the AirBnB description. I thought: This could work, it will help me get back in shape. After all, it’s just for 3 months.

The reality had a lot more grunting and sweating. After lugging 4 large suitcases, 1 heavy stroller, and 2 small children up 4 flights of old wooden spiral stairs, I’m starting to wonder if I just made the worst decision of my life or the best one.

It’s 3am in Paris and my children are jet lagged after 14 hours of flying halfway across the world. My wife was sick for most of the trip and I did not sleep at all.

But we’re in Paris. And I am so happy under all this tired.

We came here on an adventure. Paris is our favorite city in the world, and we came here to live life for a while, to enjoy each other and our young children, and to disconnect before I jump into another startup.

After all, I’m an entrepreneur without an idea. It sucks. I feel like a dog without an owner.

Technically, it’s not that I don’t have any ideas. I have plenty of them, in fact. They are all just terrible. And unfortunately, I have been doing startups long enough now to be able to tell the difference.

Ten years ago, I would blindly dedicate myself to whatever whim I had in the moment. I would spend $20,000 on a website auction for a WordPress plugin site. After that failed, I tried outsourcing to India and building my own website auctioning website.

Last week, I officially quit my well paying executive VP job at a Fortune 500 and moved my family to Paris. The plan is to decompress and not work for a while. Let life unfold and see if it helps me come up with a great idea for a company. I will start with a clean slate and document everything that comes along. Blog every good idea and (probably more frequently) every new bad idea too.

I am likely to end up making a fool out of myself with this, but at least it will be in the name of science. Next up, I will tell you about the first idea I had. (and why I am pretty certain it is already doomed to fail)

P.S. Read the next entry in this journey of coming up with a new startup: How To Come Up With Startup Ideas