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I’d add “take risks, then do everything you can to reduce the risks.” Other than possibly in finance, working 100 hours a week _for someone else_ is not going

I’d add “take risks, then do everything you can to reduce the risks.” Other than possibly in finance, working 100 hours a week _for someone else_ is not going to lead to owning a mega yacht. One needs to actually take the risk and accept the consequences. “Risk” usually is working for no compensation for a while, sometimes years. (Tech is unique for not absolutely requiring this, in that a VC may be willing to absorb most of the founding risk. The founders receive salaries long before cashflow would support them. In almost any other industry, “owning the means of production” actually means taking that risk yourself.)

icelancer 9y ago
Pretty much. You can't produce labor for someone and some day financially responsibly own a huge yacht. There's no path that makes sense unless you hit outsized luck in the form of an IPO gone right or something similar. Assuming you weren't born into wealth, you have to take on outsized risk to get outsized results. You can be smart about the risk you take, do a lot of research into the correct risks, and limit the downside as best you can, but you can't beat math.
dilemma 9y ago
Venture capital exists in every industry.
- troydavis 9y ago
  Of course, but it’s almost always after a company at least has a product and usually after revenue is funding salaries. Using PG’s phrase, it’s after the company is “default alive.” By that point, the founding risk is pretty low. A first-time entrepreneur raising capital without a product or revenue is, for all intents and purposes, unique to tech and biotech. The very few exceptions aren’t common enough that an entrepreneur could plan around them. For anyone considering a non-tech business, the podcast “How I Built This” covers it well: http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

icelancer 9y ago

Pretty much. You can't produce labor for someone and some day financially responsibly own a huge yacht. There's no path that makes sense unless you hit outsized luck in the form of an IPO gone right or something similar. Assuming you weren't born into wealth, you have to take on outsized risk to get outsized results. You can be smart about the risk you take, do a lot of research into the correct risks, and limit the downside as best you can, but you can't beat math.

dilemma 9y ago

Venture capital exists in every industry.

troydavis 9y ago
Of course, but it’s almost always after a company at least has a product and usually after revenue is funding salaries. Using PG’s phrase, it’s after the company is “default alive.” By that point, the founding risk is pretty low. A first-time entrepreneur raising capital without a product or revenue is, for all intents and purposes, unique to tech and biotech. The very few exceptions aren’t common enough that an entrepreneur could plan around them. For anyone considering a non-tech business, the podcast “How I Built This” covers it well: http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this