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I was maybe a little too excited to read "When to Jump" (https://www.amazon.com/When-Jump-Have-Isnt-Life/dp/1250124212 https://www.amazon.com/When-Jump-Have-Is
by dawhizkid 9y ago
I was maybe a little too excited to read "When to Jump"
(https://www.amazon.com/When-Jump-Have-Isnt-Life/dp/1250124212 https://www.amazon.com/When-Jump-Have-Isnt-Life/dp/125012421...) about taking a big risk in making a major career/life change against perhaps the wishes and/or expectations of your family, friends, colleagues, society, etc from an author I hadn't heard of before (but somehow got Sheryl Sandberg to write the forward for and Reid Hoffman to endorse) who left a cushy VC/finance job to travel around the world to play squash for 2 years.
After doing a little more research, I found that the author grew up in a wealthy east coast family, is a close blood relative to Sheryl Sandberg, went to an Ivy League school (likely aided by privileged upbringing and family connections), landed at a prestigious finance/VC firm straight from college (probably made possible again by an Ivy league pedigree/family connection), and could easily make the "jump" to doing something that paid nil for 2 years due to this enormous safety net of family wealth that most people simply don't have.
If there's one thing about the Travis Kalanick saga I wish the media would've told is that he is a rare successful founder who legitimately grew up in a middle class family and struggled for many years post-college trying to get to ramen-profitability on a series of failing startups before hitting it big. This is strictly in contract to the Zucks and Spiegels of the world who grew up very wealthy and went to the best schools and could take on the big risks associated with entrepreneurship because if everything failed they still had that big safety net to fall back on.
- rvo 9y agoThanks a lot for pointing this out. I wish there was a way of surfacing these connections for other authors, media personalities, founders, etc.
- amorphid 9y agoI saw Travis K. give a talk a few years back at Failcon in San Francisco about his previous startup Red Swoosh. What I remember about that talk is how he persevered through some serious s* which was the opposite of easy & fun. I'd add that while deciding when to jump, you should honestly assess whether you're really willing to go shopping for a fire extinguisher while simultaneously being burned alive.
- paul7986 9y agoI participated in at the time a no name incubator on the east coast(decade ago). Only one of the ten companies got funding and its founder had offers already going into the incubator. Offers all from his rich VC father’s other wealthy friends. I’d love to see a list of all the successful founders who came from extreme poverty. Middle class startuppers have one or two shots at it if they live at home with a relative. The rich kids can keep trying and learning from their mistakes until well they become richer. Such is life.
- dawhizkid 9y agoMakes you wonder how different the world might be if society provided a similar safety net for aspiring entrepreneurs (at least psychologically) as coming from a wealthy family.
- aaomidi 9y agoPersonally for me, if I had some basic income, I'd be more willing to take a risk and potentially create hundreds of new jobs.
- JBlue42 9y agoWell, this exists in most of Western Europe right? They do have entrepreneurs (and I'm not talking solely VC-funded startups here) but I've read that at times there's some cultural issues with 'going above your station' (thinking maybe Scandinavia). Maybe some of our European founders could detail that a bit more.
- henrikeh 9y agoDane here, but I have literally no idea what you mean by 'going above your station'.
- JBlue42 9y agoTall poppy syndrome, being moderate (lagom in Sweden?). Basically, things people have said on here or I've heard elsewhere that the cultural psyche is a bit different than the more individualistic American one, at least in terms of business. That sort of thing is what I was getting at.