5 ms·

> It is very hard to take risks when you are not financially secure There's a caveat here. It depends on your responsibilities. If you have children, fixed exp

by maratd 11y ago

> It is very hard to take risks when you are not financially secure There's a caveat here. It depends on your responsibilities. If you have children, fixed expenses, then absolutely. If you have nothing to your name and no responsibilities, it's very easy to take risks without anything to fall back on. After all, you have very little to lose.

math 11y ago
indeed. "Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked." - Steve Jobs
awjr 11y ago
I'm guessing "and are prepared to live in a car/cardboard box". Yes it's do-able but the reality is that a founder does need to be able to have the funds to sprint, fail, and sprint again. It's why people bootstrap.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Jacqued 11y ago
You can always lose your own life, pretty much. If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room while you find a job and start earning again, sure, it's easy to take risks (I've done it this way). On the other hand, if you come from a rather poor background and have no one to fall back on, finding yourself with a failed company, in debt, maybe kicked out of your place because you can't pay rent, I'd say that rather terrifying. I'm all for entrepreneurship, but if failing means living in the street, then let's just not start a company for now.
- maratd 11y ago
  > in debt, maybe kicked out of your place because you can't pay rent, I'd say that rather terrifying. There are two types of businesses out there. Those that make money from day 1 and simply need to be scaled up. Those that require substantial investment and time before you even make a penny. For anyone who isn't financially secure, doing the latter is idiotic. There are plenty of business models that you can pursue that don't involve you ending up on the street. A business model where the worst-case scenario is that you wasted some time.
  - fataliss 11y ago
    While it is true that you have profitable businesses from day 1 or almost, it still reduces your chances to be able to be an entrepreneur coming from the bottom. This article doesn't say it's impossible. Just that it's less likely/harder. That's a hard truth. You can build around all you want, there is no denying it.
- wageslave420 11y ago
  > If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room Gee here we are again talking about the parents. Why not just ask your parents for a million dollar business loan while you're at it Mitt Romney?
- wageslave420 11y ago
  > If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room Gee here we are again talking about the parents. Why not just ask your parents for a million dollar business loan while you're at it Mitt Romney?
jrochkind1 11y ago
That might (or might not) be true materially; but I would not ignore the psychological effects of growing up financially secure vs. not, and what it tends to do to your capacity to take financial risks specifically. If you don't even hardly know what it feels like to have no safety net at all, if you know you do have a safety net in the form of family that will help you out if things get _really_ bad, at least to keep you off the streets.... it's easier to take risks "without anything to fall back on." If, on the other hand, you know exactly what it really looks like to be at the bottom with truly nothing to fall back on...
- bakhy 11y ago
  true. there was an interesting text posted here once, about how one of the worse things about poverty is that it kills the will to dream big and make plans. when you're scraping by, it's much harder, and any big plan can easily fall through due to bad luck (some unexpected expenses you cannot cover eat up your small savings, e.g., and ironically, since poverty is not healthy, unexpected expenses are more likely).
  - vog 11y ago
    > ironically, since poverty is not healthy, unexpected expenses are more likely Well, that's mostly an US issue, I guess. When you live in a country with even modest public healthcare, such as Germany, things are not that terrible. Here, if you get ill, no matter how bad, you get the base treatment that you need. Of course you can (and should) pay on top of that for better treatment. But event without money, you don't have to fear to be denied important treatments. (With some unfortunate, but luckily very rare exceptions.) Thinking of that, I wonder why we Germans are so conservative, despite living relatively secure. A large portion of our people could take a lot of risk without falling too deep. Probably this is because "falling deep" here means to have to rely on social welfare provision, of which people are afraid of. But this is not really falling deep, compared to living on the street in utter poverty.
    - bakhy 11y ago
      coincidentally, i live and work in Germany ;) immigrated from Croatia 2 years ago. and i agree, no doubt about it, the system is really functional here and provides a good safety net (although, welfare involves a bit of humiliation everywhere, the money is never just handed out...). from my kinda outsider perspective, Germans seem obsessed with doing the "right" thing. the word "ordentlich" came to mind ;) the culture is a bit conformist, not too much, but noticeably. so, many people play it safe, avoid going too far out on a limb. but i'm still processing the whole experience, and occasional culture shocks, so i don't stand too firmly behind these impressions.
Spooky23 11y ago
During good times sure. In tight job markets, that resume gap is a killer.
acdha 11y ago
Even that varies based on your ability to find an alternative. If, say, you're a well-spoken geeky-looking white guy with a degree from a decent school, the worst-case scenario from a complete meltdown is something like “I took a job one cube over from Dilbert at <big corp> which has trouble keeping developers”. The further you deviate from that (not fluent in the right language, from the wrong minority/gender, self-taught, etc.) the more reasonable it is to question how a failure will impact your ability to get jobs at your level or even stay in the field.
dean 11y ago
Agreed. It always seemed to me that people with nothing to lose can take can take the biggest risks.

by maratd 11y ago

math 11y ago

indeed. "Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked." - Steve Jobs

awjr 11y ago

I'm guessing "and are prepared to live in a car/cardboard box". Yes it's do-able but the reality is that a founder does need to be able to have the funds to sprint, fail, and sprint again. It's why people bootstrap.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Jacqued 11y ago

You can always lose your own life, pretty much. If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room while you find a job and start earning again, sure, it's easy to take risks (I've done it this way). On the other hand, if you come from a rather poor background and have no one to fall back on, finding yourself with a failed company, in debt, maybe kicked out of your place because you can't pay rent, I'd say that rather terrifying. I'm all for entrepreneurship, but if failing means living in the street, then let's just not start a company for now.

maratd 11y ago
> in debt, maybe kicked out of your place because you can't pay rent, I'd say that rather terrifying. There are two types of businesses out there. Those that make money from day 1 and simply need to be scaled up. Those that require substantial investment and time before you even make a penny. For anyone who isn't financially secure, doing the latter is idiotic. There are plenty of business models that you can pursue that don't involve you ending up on the street. A business model where the worst-case scenario is that you wasted some time.
- fataliss 11y ago
  While it is true that you have profitable businesses from day 1 or almost, it still reduces your chances to be able to be an entrepreneur coming from the bottom. This article doesn't say it's impossible. Just that it's less likely/harder. That's a hard truth. You can build around all you want, there is no denying it.
wageslave420 11y ago
> If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room Gee here we are again talking about the parents. Why not just ask your parents for a million dollar business loan while you're at it Mitt Romney?
wageslave420 11y ago
> If you can go back to your old room at your parent's room Gee here we are again talking about the parents. Why not just ask your parents for a million dollar business loan while you're at it Mitt Romney?

jrochkind1 11y ago

That might (or might not) be true materially; but I would not ignore the psychological effects of growing up financially secure vs. not, and what it tends to do to your capacity to take financial risks specifically. If you don't even hardly know what it feels like to have no safety net at all, if you know you do have a safety net in the form of family that will help you out if things get _really_ bad, at least to keep you off the streets.... it's easier to take risks "without anything to fall back on." If, on the other hand, you know exactly what it really looks like to be at the bottom with truly nothing to fall back on...

bakhy 11y ago
true. there was an interesting text posted here once, about how one of the worse things about poverty is that it kills the will to dream big and make plans. when you're scraping by, it's much harder, and any big plan can easily fall through due to bad luck (some unexpected expenses you cannot cover eat up your small savings, e.g., and ironically, since poverty is not healthy, unexpected expenses are more likely).
- vog 11y ago
  > ironically, since poverty is not healthy, unexpected expenses are more likely Well, that's mostly an US issue, I guess. When you live in a country with even modest public healthcare, such as Germany, things are not that terrible. Here, if you get ill, no matter how bad, you get the base treatment that you need. Of course you can (and should) pay on top of that for better treatment. But event without money, you don't have to fear to be denied important treatments. (With some unfortunate, but luckily very rare exceptions.) Thinking of that, I wonder why we Germans are so conservative, despite living relatively secure. A large portion of our people could take a lot of risk without falling too deep. Probably this is because "falling deep" here means to have to rely on social welfare provision, of which people are afraid of. But this is not really falling deep, compared to living on the street in utter poverty.
  - bakhy 11y ago
    coincidentally, i live and work in Germany ;) immigrated from Croatia 2 years ago. and i agree, no doubt about it, the system is really functional here and provides a good safety net (although, welfare involves a bit of humiliation everywhere, the money is never just handed out...). from my kinda outsider perspective, Germans seem obsessed with doing the "right" thing. the word "ordentlich" came to mind ;) the culture is a bit conformist, not too much, but noticeably. so, many people play it safe, avoid going too far out on a limb. but i'm still processing the whole experience, and occasional culture shocks, so i don't stand too firmly behind these impressions.

Spooky23 11y ago

During good times sure. In tight job markets, that resume gap is a killer.

acdha 11y ago

Even that varies based on your ability to find an alternative. If, say, you're a well-spoken geeky-looking white guy with a degree from a decent school, the worst-case scenario from a complete meltdown is something like “I took a job one cube over from Dilbert at <big corp> which has trouble keeping developers”. The further you deviate from that (not fluent in the right language, from the wrong minority/gender, self-taught, etc.) the more reasonable it is to question how a failure will impact your ability to get jobs at your level or even stay in the field.

dean 11y ago

Agreed. It always seemed to me that people with nothing to lose can take can take the biggest risks.