This Saturday (November 18th) was a little bit different than usual, in that I was the guest, Matthew Ray and Nancy Nash interviewed me. During this discussion we talked about the shutting down of my start-up Unseen Games, my personal history and inspirations, and my passion for technology and engineering.
As I was the focus of the talk I don't feel it's fair for me to be the critical voice for my interview, and I'm sure Matt or Nancy will do this in my place. What I believe worth exploring is the turn about, of going from interviewer to interviewee.
Preparation, Comfort and Time:
Nancy does the majority of the prepatory work before each Saturday session whilst I primarily handle the editing afterwards. For obvious reasons the situation for this session was slightly changed. Over the last 4 years, I have asked many questions to our guest, some of which I wanted to think through answers to beforehand, however, I found it difficult to think of answers even starting to feel some anxiety over the impending interview.
Within minutes of the start of the session I felt any anxiety melt away, and found the answers to the questions put to me, the very questions I struggled with not an hour ago, flowing freely. This was a strange experience which I will try to take with me to my future interviews, the understanding that when you, as an interviewer, make your guest feel comfortable, the answers to your questions almost themselves need to be said, and they just require the question for the answering.
Unseen Games:
Three weeks before our session I made the call to shutdown Unseen Games, the start-up I have spent my free time for the last 5 years developing, bringing a team together, learning the skills I needed for it, and generally burning hours and hours of my life for. This was not an easy call.
We discussed this decision, how I came to it, what I will do with the resources from Unseen Games.
Entrepreneurship and Positivity Overload:
It is common in discussing or reporting about entrepreneurship to focus on the accolades and successes. The expectation from a founder interview is to hear about the trials and triumphs. Unfortunately, for me the story of Unseen Games, at this point, is not one filled with conventional triumphs. It was a difficult road, which ultimately did not bear fruit. I wanted this interview to be focused more on the difficulties of the entrepreneurship journey. As an entrepreneur one is constantly dealing with a high level of stress and thing regularly don't work out, it's important to be aware of this. Success in entrepreneurship often comes from the ability to deal with these scenarios and continuing to adapt.
The Future:
As often happens, this session was ended on the future. My plans going forward, how I wish to improve myself and my goals. I'm looking to improve the speed of my decision making, and my mental fortitude, both of which are things I think will benefit my entrepreneurial voyage immensely. It was very refreshing to lay out my thoughts during this session, and as usual, it was a pleasure to talk with Nancy and Matt.
- Spencer Walker-Fooks
