I think my inspiration to have the ‘confidence’ came from reading about Sohrab Vossoughi, who founded Ziba by designing the infamous cleret shower squeegee right out of school in his apartment in a somewhat ‘uncool’ suburb of Portland (Ultimately, very far from the building he works in today with hundreds of people under him). I
I think his move was very ballsy and relates to a combination of things:
Just as opportunity is an equation of {luck/timing + skills/timing = opportunity}, it also comes down to confidence and perserverence.
In addition it comes down to having a toolbox of maybe one or two connections to get started, (friends, referrals from faculty at school, or just plain cold-calling).
I just landed an independent job from a mutual friend. The ‘other’ guy just has a lot of money and a simple idea, and he didn’t even ask to see my portfolio, he just heard from the mutual friend that I was a ‘designer’. Turns out, the first meeting sealed the deal because my skills/timing + luck of meeting the guy/timing = an opportunity for me.
I wouldn’t consider this an everyday scenario, but I had no idea this would land in my lap, and now Im doing this thing. If I lacked confidence, he would be able to sense it in the first minute of meeting me.
I know its going to be a struggle to deal with tooling, material sourcing, and manufacturing, because all they really teach you in school are entry-level design skills, not project management skills (I am a senior in school). I know I am putting myself on the line here, but like Arad, things don’t happen unless you make them happen, regardless if you think you’re “good enough or not”.
Ultimately,
The secret sauce is you, just make sure it tastes different and good, you market it well, and people will give it a try (and want to keep coming back.)