Work for the most important company in the world… your own. It was my dream for years, so why didnt I apply for it ?

During my university days I found out about a course known as Embreonix, a government backed course which helps those with aspirations of starting a business in any field. The only requirement was to have a previous degree in any field. It even included a weekly stipend and business offices along with the right training to get your business idea off the ground.

As a games programing student with lots of aspirations of taking the gaming world by storm with a new innovative game idea, this was too good to be true. Finish the degree, then make your millions with your own company making games you want to make.

If only life were that simple. By the time I was ready to apply for this course, I had already been offered a job as a software engineer at NCR. So now I had a choice. Do I go for the safe option and a reasonable salary paid job, or do I live dangerously and go very little pay with a small chance of success? Do I even have a good idea for a game?

For the next 6 months I looked back on that decision with regret. I was working in a position I hated, working for the man and certainly not working in games that I had wanted to. But then I changed job to the games company and I started working on computer games as I had always wanted to.

Recently, 4 years later, I came across the Embreonix course website again. The deadline for application was in 3 days time. Should I apply for it? And then all the memories came flooding back.. your own company, your own ideas, full control of your destiny. With all the experience I had gained in various companies, plus the new market of indie game development (the opportunity for a small team to develop a game for consoles typically only the large companies got to be on) provided the perfect route-to-market. It was perfect!

I spent the whole weekend working on the application. I refined the business idea section and worked on was working on the competition section. And then it hit me. Do I really want to do this course any more?

For more than 5 years doing this was always at the back of my mind. Now I finally got to the stage of seriously considering it again and now I didn’t want to do it. What happened !?

Filling out the application form made me realise a few things. My aspirations of making a successful computer game had already been fulfilled by working in the games company before. Whilst it sounded like an interesting way to spend a year, working on the business-side, the purpose to make a computer game was simply not a passion for me any more.

Its interesting to see that I could only have realised that after having filled out the form. Whilst it was a weekend spent on an unused application, I certainly wouldn’t call it a waste. For one, it helped me to realise just what I would be involving myself in to do a course of this sort. And it put to rest all of the wonderings over the years to do this course. I can now safely say that I am happy I haven’t gone ahead with it. As to what I will do instead… thats something I still need to work on.

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