5 ms·

Entrepreneurship Thrives from the Unknown

18 points by nandorsky 9y ago

blrgeek 9y ago
Right, entrepreneurship is the only field of human endeavor where amateurs can become the best in the field without any study or training whatsoever. Welcome to the mythologizing of the startup world. For one counter narrative, you should understand why serial entrepreneurs are more successful, why almost the only correlation with success is how many startups a person has done before. Another counter point is why there's a PayPal mafia and a whole host of successful founders coming out of specific startups. Yet another counter point is how successful businesses built by people with experience in the same domain somehow don't get counted as 'startups' because they didn't take 'risk'. Don't fall for the jargon and hype. Expert entrepreneurs have transferable skills that will reduce your risk of failure. It's your bravado and ego that's failing to recognize the difference.
- nandorsky 9y ago
  Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I happen to agree, especially with your first point. Entrepreneurs learn by doing, the more they do, the more they learn which is what post is talking about. Wouldn't my piece support your point about serial entrepreneurs then?
  - blrgeek 9y ago
    Yes. Your post goes into the first point about serial entrepreneurs, but fails to see the value of learnable entrepreneurial skills, and the value of coming from a successful startup, or with deep domain expertise. If you're addressing fresh grads, then telling them doing a startup vs learning about a startup vs working in a startup are of different value, would be better. Even Mark suster and Ben horowitz and Steve blank suggest working in a fast growing startup is very useful before doing your own. So there is a way to learn those skills without risk, with a good salary and some small upside potential. As one of them has it, a time to learn and a time to earn... I guess I reacted a bit to the language which speaks about taking risk very lightly.
    - nandorsky 9y ago
      I never said anything about quitting your job to do a startup. Much of what I said could be done while having a full time job. My point was in order to learn you should start executing.
- amelius 9y ago
  > Right, entrepreneurship is the only field of human endeavor where amateurs can become the best in the field without any study or training whatsoever. The opposite is true in many cases. For example, I suppose you can't sell medical drugs if you're an amateur without any credentials.
  - blrgeek 9y ago
    I missed the /sarcasm tag. Writing off experience on the path to becoming an entrepreneur glorifies the unique challenges of being an entrepreneur, while underplaying the 99% of other work that makes a business successful in the real world.
rafiki6 9y ago
This applies to a narrow definition of a start-up. How do you account for businesses that require high-level or academic expertise of the product? Or a sound understanding of the market? Your chances of success are much higher with any endeavor, when you eliminate risks of failure. I found this article rather enlightening :http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094215589143 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094215589143 It speaks about entrepreneurship education which is a form of mentor ship and training. A wise person will learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. Granted, every business will have some slight differences and required ADAPTABILITY. But there's plenty of value in learning from others. Companies the likes of FANG etc. all seemed to bring in expertise and experience or what is colloquially known as adult supervision once investors got involved. Don't believe the hype that these companies are successful because some 20 something is brilliant.

18 points by nandorsky 9y ago

Right, entrepreneurship is the only field of human endeavor where amateurs can become the best in the field without any study or training whatsoever. Welcome to the mythologizing of the startup world. For one counter narrative, you should understand why serial entrepreneurs are more successful, why almost the only correlation with success is how many startups a person has done before. Another counter point is why there's a PayPal mafia and a whole host of successful founders coming out of specific startups. Yet another counter point is how successful businesses built by people with experience in the same domain somehow don't get counted as 'startups' because they didn't take 'risk'. Don't fall for the jargon and hype. Expert entrepreneurs have transferable skills that will reduce your risk of failure. It's your bravado and ego that's failing to recognize the difference.

nandorsky 9y ago
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I happen to agree, especially with your first point. Entrepreneurs learn by doing, the more they do, the more they learn which is what post is talking about. Wouldn't my piece support your point about serial entrepreneurs then?
- blrgeek 9y ago
  Yes. Your post goes into the first point about serial entrepreneurs, but fails to see the value of learnable entrepreneurial skills, and the value of coming from a successful startup, or with deep domain expertise. If you're addressing fresh grads, then telling them doing a startup vs learning about a startup vs working in a startup are of different value, would be better. Even Mark suster and Ben horowitz and Steve blank suggest working in a fast growing startup is very useful before doing your own. So there is a way to learn those skills without risk, with a good salary and some small upside potential. As one of them has it, a time to learn and a time to earn... I guess I reacted a bit to the language which speaks about taking risk very lightly.
  - nandorsky 9y ago
    I never said anything about quitting your job to do a startup. Much of what I said could be done while having a full time job. My point was in order to learn you should start executing.
amelius 9y ago
> Right, entrepreneurship is the only field of human endeavor where amateurs can become the best in the field without any study or training whatsoever. The opposite is true in many cases. For example, I suppose you can't sell medical drugs if you're an amateur without any credentials.
- blrgeek 9y ago
  I missed the /sarcasm tag. Writing off experience on the path to becoming an entrepreneur glorifies the unique challenges of being an entrepreneur, while underplaying the 99% of other work that makes a business successful in the real world.

rafiki6 9y ago

This applies to a narrow definition of a start-up. How do you account for businesses that require high-level or academic expertise of the product? Or a sound understanding of the market? Your chances of success are much higher with any endeavor, when you eliminate risks of failure. I found this article rather enlightening :http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094215589143 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094215589143 It speaks about entrepreneurship education which is a form of mentor ship and training. A wise person will learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. Granted, every business will have some slight differences and required ADAPTABILITY. But there's plenty of value in learning from others. Companies the likes of FANG etc. all seemed to bring in expertise and experience or what is colloquially known as adult supervision once investors got involved. Don't believe the hype that these companies are successful because some 20 something is brilliant.