Rise and Fall of the Business World

Tom on left, Kaleil on right

Imagine being so excited about starting up your own business then watching it fall apart, It's probably the most disheartening thing to watch. In a documentary based around two friends, Tom and Kaleil, you'll see a business they worked so hard to build come crashing down. It hits you with the reality of having your own company by displaying all the hardships that come with it, I learned a lot about trying to build your own business from the ground up. Even though I never had the desire to do such a thing, I for sure don't have any hopes of doing so after watching this. This is not to discourage anyone but to simply bring a realistic perspective to it.

The Rise

I don't know the first thing about building a company let alone keeping one afloat. With that being said, in the beginning of this documentary they are discussing a name for the company and the CEO, Kaleil, is having a really difficult time in deciding what name he wants to go with. I realized from the start that building a company takes critical thinking and time; even down to the company name is crucial. It made me realize the importance of this "rising" process, from them having to pitch the ideas to multiple people in order to get funding to coming out with a name and sticking to it, every last detail is important.

Even in the rise of the company there was hardships, they continuously got shut down and one man that Kaleil spoke about was particularly harsh. He shut them down for dumb reasons like presenting documents instead of a computer and he felt like they had to live on the West Coast to build an "internet business." I learned that your idea for a business could be brilliant, not saying Tom and Kaleil's was that because I thought it was rather good but didn't see the necessity; however, you could can get shut down for pointless reasons.

I enjoyed when Tom and Kaleil had their break through because in a sense I felt like I was going through the process with them. When they finally got the company started up I was excited to see where they'd go with it, but I wasn't expecting what happened to happen. The people who were helping run the company started dropping like flies.

The Fall

In the end, the company kind of fell apart. Kaleil was the only one left basically. Something that concerned me about the fall of the company is the fact that they had over 200 employees working for them and if the company falls apart, so do those employers. A lot of them would be out of a job thanks to a being with the wrong company at the wrong time. I know these employers probably had some sort of credentials to work there and they'd be able to find another job easily, but it'd still be a scary thing to go through. I wouldn't the blame on anyone I think they were just trying to run a company in the time of a crisis. 

I found their story interesting and learned a lot about what can go wrong in building a business and how personal relationships can be affected. Like I said, in the end Khalil was left standing alone and his friendship with Tom was rocky after knowing each other for so many years. Not to mention Kaleil's love life which appeared in the documentary a few times. What I took from this was, don't start a business with a best friend.