I still remember the look on my father’s face when I told him I wanted to quit my day job. It was years ago but it still feels like yesterday. The disappointing, confused look that says “Why? why would you leave a good job like that?” The young me naively said to him in a voice full of confidence that I wanted to pursue my creative passion and make a design agency.

I did create a design agency and my dream came true. Two years after that, the company went bankrupt, I failed. I didn’t have the right business model, never made a business plan and hadn’t dealt with company cash flow all my life. It is a surprise that the company even made it to 2 years. Fun times.

After that, I learned from my mistakes and dove in to learn about the basics of business, tax (which I still have no clue), accounting, and cash flow management through any textbook that I can read. I am definitely not passionate about income tax, making income statements, or doing a 3 year business plan but I need to learn all those to actually succeed in the business world. Sometimes we need to do the things we hate in order to get the things we want. In this case, money is the thing I wanted.

This phase of my life changed me in some way. It made the idealist in me accept the cruel reality of the world: Money makes the world go round. You can talk all you want about making a startup that will change people’s lives, reach billions of people and remind everyone that you’re not doing for the money. Well that’s just bullshit. Startup is a business and business makes money. If you say otherwise than you’re building a charity foundation, not a startup.

I’m not saying that passion is not important, of course it is. How else can you survive the onslaught of overtime work and sacrificing your weekends if you’re not passionate in what you do? I’m saying that in order for your startup to succeed, you need to think about where you’ll get the money. Think of your business model even before making a product.

Money comes first, passion will follow. How can you support your company when you have no money? What’s your sustainability plan? You do realize that investor funding is not a business model right? In the end, passion doesn’t pay your bill and feed your kid.

I’ve founded a number of companies these past couple of years ranging from design, tech, startups, media, and fashion. All born from my passion on various fields (yes I am a very passionate man). Many have failed, some have never even seen the light of day, but the ones that actually worked (and still alive) are the ones that made money from day one (or at least by the end of the first month).

I would like to close this article by quoting an article from spinsucks.com:

You can hear cash is king over and over and over again and perhaps you’ll think of it the same way I did. Instead, I hope you create a cash account that has a minimum of 90 days expenses in it. This goes for both your business and your personal lives. And, sometimes, it’s not enough to grow revenues or ask for a raise. Sometimes you have to cut expenses – a lot – in order to get yourself in a cash positive range.

Cash is king, think otherwise and you’re dead.

Aria Rajasa is the CEO of gantibaju.com, a clothing startup not dissimilar to Threadless but with a touch of Indonesia and a very strong design community. His passion in entrepreneurship has gotten him to start a number of companies since leaving university.

[image by 401K]