5 ms·

Well, actually, I think startup founders actually need this kind of slight delusion. In my more rational moments, I think my ideas suck, my plans are hollow and

• 10ren 16y ago
  > why the hell are you playing? If you build something that solves a problem that people have (ie. is useful), and you arrange for people get to know about it somehow, then I think you can't help but be successful. But "successful" might not be a goldmine/lottery; it just might be making an adequate living, in a lifestyle business - like a fish n chip shop (as DHH denigrates). I think it's actually quite hard to fail at this, if you are aiming at creating something useful + communicating it. You might see this as being an independent software vendor where the total value you produce is comparable to an ordinary employee - except that you are free to formulate your own projects etc (which has +'s and -'s.) Another aspect is that if you create something useful... that's amazingly cool and valuable in itself. As for the lottery, win or lose, doesn't matter.
  • donaq 16y ago
    I actually agree with you about the definition of success. I would consider my next project a success if it somehow generates enough profit to allow me to dump the day job. However, that in itself is a lottery (the one I was referring to), since it is by no means certain that I will succeed. In this case, winning the lottery actually matters a lot to me personally, because it would give me the freedom to try and build more cool stuff.
    • 10ren 16y ago
      I see what you mean about that being a lottery. I guess the amount of money made does have a lottery aspect. But it still seems reasonable to me that one man can generate one man's worth of value, whether employed or independent. But whether one man can generate 10... 10,000... or 10,000,000 man worths is more of a lottery. The doesn't matter was paraphrasing a passage within a speech by Winston Churchill (which I got wrong), which ends: Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.' http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Their_Finest_Hour http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Their_Finest_Hour
  • lsc 16y ago
    "If you build something that solves a problem that people have (ie. is useful), and you arrange for people get to know about it somehow, then I think you can't help but be successful. But "successful" might not be a goldmine/lottery; it just might be making an adequate living, in a lifestyle business - like a fish n chip shop (as DHH denigrates). I think it's actually quite hard to fail at this, if you are aiming at creating something useful + communicating it." This is what I'm doing, with some success. Now, if you don't count the net worth growth implicit in how the company is growing, I'm not making what I would be working for other people, but I think I'm a success. I set my own hours, my baseline expenses are covered, and when I hustle, I can make a lot of money. when I don't, like the last few months, well, like I said, my baseline expenses are covered. Also, eh, I've probably grown my reputation enough that my credentials now look better than they would had I spent this effort on college. I don't know if I agree with the "can't help but be successful" part, though. I poured most of my income and spare time into projects like this for many years before I hit upon a project that actually worked. Now, part of that might be because I'm no superman... my IQ barely makes it into the 98th percentile, which really is kinda dumb. I never went to college, and, uh, I'm pretty lazy. I got a 2.16GPA in one of the worst high schools in the state. I mean, yeah. no two ways about it, I'm lazy. So yeah, uh, if you are a Paul Graham, maybe starting a lifestyle business is easy. Maybe. but for me, it was a lot of work. Now, it was work that I liked doing; I think I enjoyed building my company more than I would have enjoyed taking the money and buying a porsche (and I'd be able to buy one with the cash I dumped in before it became profitable... two or three if I got a reasonable rate for the time I spent before the company became profitable.) On the other hand, maybe what you mean is that you can choose to run a lifestyle business in such a way that you don't really fail until you choose to fail. This is what I did. When I ran out of money, I'd do more contracting, or get a full time job. When I was flush, I'd work more on my business. Really, I could have continued spending 3/4th of my income and time on the business for the rest of my life; unlike a startup with investors, there isn't anyone around to say "give it up" - it's just me. as long as I'm willing to work, there will be money.
    • 10ren 16y ago
      I didn't mean that definition of "fail", but I guess I was cheating a bit with the "creating something useful", in that I was assuming that you already know what would be useful - whereas that is often the difficult part. In my defence, I say that finding something to create that is useful enough to give a modest one-man income, is a lot easier than finding one giving a multi-billion dollar payout. The main way to make it easier is to specialize: a niche that is complex enough to require a lot of work, yet small enough to not be worth >1 person's time to serve. From there, you can grow to other segments if you want, or just enjoy your little place in the world. The key is to know about those specific problems, so it's invaluable to have worked/studied/played in a field. Hence the saying a problem is an opportunity. Of course, we all have different motivations/passions and abilities, and that influences what niche will be doable and satisfying for each individual. Currently, I have a technical/academic idea about data integration and evolution that I really want to make work, which isn't specific to any industry (except the data integration and evolution industry, I guess). My last idea was about a specific problem I encountered in industry, and that was much easier to create and sell. Much easier.
• lsc 16y ago
  eh, maybe. But you need to be /very careful/ with that. It's /very easy/ to get yourself in a whole lot of debit. I know two people who will be in debit for the rest of their lives because they were overconfident, made mistakes and weren't able to pay taxes on large amounts of money that then got pinned on them personally rather than the failing corp. I mean, you need to be able to take some risks... but you also need to temper that with 'I might fail' because especially the first time? you probably will. Personally, my low point was around $15K that I was personally on the hook for. Considering my income potential, it's a reasonable number; I paid it off through contracting in a reasonable amount of time, and if worst came to worst, it wasn't tax debit; While I had to personally co-sign, I could have declared personal bankruptcy. But, my point is that yeah, you need to take risk... and taking risks where the downside means you have to work for a year or two for other people if you fail seems pretty reasonable to me. Taking risks where if you fail, you will never get to try again, ever, seems like a bad idea. So yeah; confidence is great, and you need some of it. But cover your ass because the worst case does sometimes happen. Be /especially/ careful of debits you can't get rid of through bankruptcy- e.g. don't fuck around with your taxes, get someone who knows what they are doing. The system is complex and even when you make honest mistakes, often the assumption seems to be that you were trying to cheat. If you can learn from your failures and try again, you have a much higher lifetime chance of success than if you only have one shot.