I Started a Business at 24 and Failed. Here’s What I Learned.

This one’s personal. 

I want to tell you about the time I started a pares business at 24, using PHP 50,000 of my savings, and how it didn’t go the way I hoped it would.

I set up a small stall near the local high-foot traffic wet market. The kitchen was built from scratch using salvaged and makeshift tools. Everything about it was barebones. I thought if I worked hard enough, things would click into place. That didn’t quite happen.

Still, here are a few things I wish I knew before I jumped in. Some of these might sound like common sense, and honestly, they are. But when you’re actually in the thick of it, common sense doesn’t always hit the way it should.

In today’s edition, we’ll go over:

• What it was like starting a food business with PHP 50,000 war chest

• Why quitting your job before your business takes off might backfire

• How setting a “loss limit” saved me from financial ruin

• The parts of running a business no one really prepares you for 

• What failed execution taught me that business school never could

TLDR;

The Bottom Line

• Don’t quit your job too early. No income = a lot of emotional pressure tied to daily sales.

• I only invested what I was willing to lose, which made the failure easier to walk away from.

• Great products don’t guarantee success—logistics, operations, and burnout will hit harder than you think.

• Planning is helpful, but real life will still blindside you. Execute with flexibility, not just optimism.

The content

1. Don’t quit your job.

Social media has really glamorized the burn the ships mindset. Self-help gurus tell you to quit your job so you’ll have no choice but to succeed, put yourself in a position where the fear will push you to go all in. No, don’t listen to them. 

I quit my job thinking the fear would motivate me. Instead, I ended up tying my entire sense of worth to how much I made that day. The business was inconsistent, which is normal when you’re starting, but that also meant my mental health became just as up-and-down as the sales.

It’s hard to be creative or strategic when you’re in survival mode. So if you’re planning to start something, I recommend keeping your job for a while—even if it’s just part-time. You need that buffer. 

I didn’t have it, and it made everything harder than it already was.

2. Only invest what you’re willing to lose.

I didn’t pour my entire savings into the business. PHP 50,000 was the cap I set for myself (an amount I was fully prepared to lose if things didn’t work out). That was me doing a bit of personal risk management, and to be honest, I’m glad I did. Because when the business eventually folded, I didn’t have to rebuild my life from zero. It hurt, sure, but not in a financially devastating way.

It sounds counterintuitive, right? We’re taught to go all in if we believe in something. But real talk: most small businesses will operate at a loss for months, even years. Overnight success stories are rare, and for every one that makes it, there are hundreds that quietly shut down and move on.

It’s called Survivorship Bias. We only hear about the Don Macchiatos and 7-figure TikTok brand launches because no one wants to talk about failure. But failure happens, and it happens a lot.

So if you're going to start something, make sure you're okay with the idea that it might not work. And plan your finances around that—not around the fantasy that everything will go right.

3. It’s not just about your product.

I was so focused on making a great product and getting the taste right that I completely underestimated everything else.

The logistics were a nightmare. I had no refrigeration, no running water, and barely enough space to store ingredients. I couldn’t bulk buy or prep for the week, so I was at the market every other day, sometimes even before sunrise, just to make sure we had enough for that day’s service.

I had one full-time employee and one part-time crew to help man the stall during open hours. But all the prep, all the sourcing, all the financial stuff, the marketing, the repairs, the bill payments, the emotional labor—it was all on me. 

On paper, I was a small food business owner. In practice, I was the manager, cook, delivery person, repairman, accountant, and social media manager, all rolled into one.

People don’t always talk about this part. But it’s important to know that your product is only a tiny slice of the business. Everything else (the boring, invisible stuff) is what will drain you if you're not ready for it.

4. Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive.

I graduated with a business degree, so I thought I had an edge. I did a bit of market research. I came up with a market strategy, pricing, etc (all that theoretical stuff). I thought that would be enough.

But being on the ground is so, so different. I couldn’t get the ideal location I had in mind. I couldn’t afford the setup I envisioned. All the things I thought would give me an advantage just didn’t.

Instead, I found myself lost in day-to-day tasks. When you’re doing everything yourself, it’s easy to get swallowed up by small details and lose sight of what you were building in the first place.

It’s not that those things aren’t important. They are. But they also distract you from the big picture if you're not intentional about creating space to zoom out and recalibrate. I didn't leave myself that space, and I felt it.

Final Thoughts

You might think I was naive. And yeah, I probably was. But I also wouldn’t trade the lessons I got from that experience for anything.

Do I think you should do what I did? Honestly, no. You’d probably do better. You’d probably be smarter about it. But if you’re thinking of starting something, I hope this gives you a clearer picture of what to expect, and a little extra room to pause and prepare.

I’m not here to say don’t start a business. Entrepreneurship is still part of my plan. But it’s not the romantic, passion-fueled journey people make it out to be. It’s exhausting. It’s lonely. It can gut you.

But it can also teach you things about yourself that a safe job never will.

So if you’re going to do it, do it with your eyes open.