Bootstrapping is cool!

But it does come with plenty of hardships.

Whenever you hear someone bootstrapped their company from zero to a million dollars in a year, it doesn't always tell the whole story.

As a side note, the term bootstrap or bootstrapping originated in the early 1950s. It referred to a bootstrap load button that was used to initiate a hardwired bootstrap program.

There are a few scenarios that usually happen:

1. They might be living off the money they made in their previous job and are now building their dream or building it as a side hustle.

2. They have practically zero bank balance, and a very generous close friend or a partner will be there to take care of them.

3. They are from a family background that doesn't expect much from them and probably supports them in building their dream.

Generally, it's one of these three scenarios.

I've been in both the #2 and #3 situations, and to be honest, sometimes I am still being helped by family, for which I'm eternally grateful.

I'm not ashamed to say that I still take financial help from my family sometimes, even after running multiple businesses for 8 years.

And guess what? My family does the same too. My father has been running his printing press for 35 years, and my mother has been co-running the same for 26 years.

We also have a few other family businesses as well, and we take loans sometimes to keep the motors running.

But the thing is, we all need support, whether it's financial or emotional. It's the people around us who make that happen.

So, when someone says they bootstrapped their company, remember it is hard, but nothing was possible without support from the people around them.

Do you fall under any of these categories?

I'm curious to know.

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