Do you know the guy who always talk about his big ideas but never got around doing it? Or the guy spreads entrepreneurship religiously and read whole lot of business book but never started a real business? Or the guy who always ask you to quit your job and start your own business but never do it himself? Do you? Well, if you happened to know some guys similar to what I described above, some clever folks from Hacker News just figured out a new name for them - Nontrepreneurs.

What Nontrepreneur really is

As awful as the name might sound, nontrepreneurs are not all bad. For one, they inspire. I have personally know a few nontrepreneurs in Malaysia who organized events and functions and even successfully inspired a few real entrepreneurs (even with their bad advices), ironically. In fact, being a nontrepreneur is just a step from a real entrepreneur. They might even already have all the ideas, knowledge and skills to be successful in business. All they are missing is just a simple act of courage. Yes, they are just afraid to fail, like really horrible and 'public' failure as if it would kill them. As if.

Ex-nontrepreneur speaks

I used to be a nontrepreneur. I still remembered vividly when for years I read all the books and even talk to my friends and family about starting a business, but I never walk the talk. I came close, but still never dare to. That is, until one day I stumbled Mark Cuban's blog, and this post really does it (go print it and read it if you haven't already do so):

The point of all this is that it doesn’t matter how many times you fail.It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right.No one is going to know or care about your failures, and either should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because… All that matters in business is that you get it right once.

Now, I can proudly say that it has made all the difference.

Are you a Nontrepreneur?

If you are a nontrepreneur, you know there is totally nothing to be ashamed of. But you should also know perhaps it's time to start doing. --- Comments on Hacker News.

Even though the number of people showed up are less than half the number of words in the title, we had a great time.

The Idea

One fine evening few weeks ago, YE, Sui Cheng and myself were out celebrating about me getting the preseed fund (that's an entire topic on its own though). YE talked about having a group of 'DotCom' (his exact word) founders in Malaysia. I then materialized his idea of starting with a small group here in Penang with who we know first. We discussed about having a casual meetup with no specific agenda, only free flow discussion sharing ideas, experience and wisdoms. All of us liked it and I built up a mini site once I got home. Yesterday, we had our first meetup.

The First Meetup

The first meetup was held at the cozy Starbucks inside Queensbay Mall's Borders bookstore. Unfortunately, a few our invited founders couldn't make it and Sui Cheng was in Singapore. But still, Kris Khaira (from Kedai Runcit) and YE (from FullHouse) came. We chatted for a while (the major highlight being the open source business model, Kris' experience in Europe for DrupalCon and his cool projects) and then shifted to TGI Friday. The meetup ended at 10+pm.

Calling More Startup Founders in Penang

We will be having our next meetup in November (we plan to do it once a month). If you would like to come, please drop me an email.