6 ms·

Why I Became an Entrepreneur (the Long Story)

94 points by MediaSquirrel 16y ago

markstansbury 16y ago
Good read.
- mvalle 16y ago
  Definitely, I like the way it is written. I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like an entrepreneur wrote it. It has a feel to it.
unohoo 16y ago
The line that seemed most weird: >> In 2007, I acquired a girlfriend
- trafficlight 16y ago
  And in 2008 he disregarded females and acquired currency. I believe that's how the meme goes.
- tommynazareth 16y ago
  Yeah, I scanned through this and that line jumped right out at me.
nl 16y ago
I think Matt would have made an fucking great investment banker. ;)
rradu 16y ago
Very impressive story. Would love to hear others' stories on why / how they became entrepreneurs.
maxklein 16y ago
As impressive as the story is - it sounds very typically American. A boring American has the normal story you know. An interesting American has this story or some variation of it - maybe immigrant parents, maybe poor childhood, maybe doing something social, maybe struggling to get into college, maybe rich friends one is jealous of. Lots of American movies I'm watched have this story. Everyones story has a narrative that is a lot more interesting, but all the magazine reading and the movie watching you do forces your narrative into a typical down-up-down-up scheme, because it seems like that's the right story to tell. There is that story of those African boys who ran across the savannah and some of their friends were eaten by lions. that is a non-traditional and interesting narrative. Being top in Columbia is just about standard for an american narrative. I'm not hating on the story - but I just think that it's not that different from many stories I've read.
- rradu 16y ago
  Welll... yeah, that's why good stories are good stories; they're structured in a way that keeps you guessing. Best part about this story is that it's true, unlike the other places where I've seen this "model" used (hollywood)
- muhfuhkuh 16y ago
  >I'm not hating on the story I think it's not the flow of the narrative as much as it is the "drama for the sake of it." I mean, the way it reads, Matt seems like the guy who came up from nothing, on food stamps and government cheese. Not some son of a professor. I mean, I don't care where you come from, but most people mow their own lawns. That ain't hardship, in my opinion. And, his stories of being dejected for being not rich was kinda cloying, especially for someone who has done as his dad has and clawed his way out from a lower-middle working class background in a school where most people didn't mow their lawns because they didn't _have_ lawns. That said, he did do forest fireman work. And, he was a Paramedic. That's pretty cool. In other words, it's the choices he's made that's semi-interesting, not that he was forced down those paths he chose. He has a rebellious streak, and it's discordant with his abilities and drive for achievement in school and entrepreneurship. And, I think the takeaway (at least in his eyes) is he's not some stuff-shirt stiff when he easily could be given his abilities and work ethic.
unsignedlong 16y ago
I had never before felt bounded by social class, by economics, by mother fucking money. I remember when it hit home: I was taking a graduate seminar on Afghan Politics. After class one day, I struck up conversation with a girl sitting next to me. She asked about my background. “I used to fight forest fires,” I explained, thinking I was so cool. Her forehead crinkled. She stopped for a second, then responded: “Oh. I didn’t know they let people like that, you know, in here.” Wonderful. And Columbia has a $6 billion endowment[1] on which they pay absolutely NO TAX. They also recently used eminent domain to seize a portion of Harlem.[2] Columbia, Harvard, and every other elitist, non-profit-for-tax-purposes-only private university should have its tax exempt status revoked. 1) http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/new-york-ny/columbia-university-2707 http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/... 2) http://news.google.com/news/search?q=columbia+eminent+domain http://news.google.com/news/search?q=columbia+eminent+domain
- siculars 16y ago
  I actually work for Columbia and my brother graduated from their engineering school, SEAS. Now I think it's called Fu, no joke. Yes Columbia is elitist, like the other Ivys, but they do let a number of poor people in (like my brother) and give them just enough money to make it affordable with loans. Could they do better, ya I think so. But eh, what are you gonna do about it? In reality, if you are willing to become indebted to student loans and have decent grades/test scores you can get into a number of elitist institutions of higher education that will give you some sort of hardship discount. In regards to your second point, I also happen to live just a few blocks from where that whole eminent domain thing took place. Believe me, it's quite blighted but has been on the up and up in the last 5 years or so. The handful of people who held out were operating storage facilities, gas stations and mechanics shops. One of the property owners is himself a developer developing property in Westchester. Every single one of them were offered a considerable amount of money to relocate. I've seen the plans, I've been to the meetings. Columbia will bring a ton of jobs and money to the neighborhood many, many times more than the current state of affairs. Not only that but I believe they will also be opening a grade school of some sort open to children from the area. Oh, the campus will also be focused on science and technology. You know, things that have a better ROI for society than storage bins.
DanielN 16y ago
don't give up on journalism, it's only dead to those who aren't great writers, and this guy is a great writer.
araneae 16y ago
This is the most incredibly self-indulgent piece I've read all month.
- tommynazareth 16y ago
  I hate to judge a book by its cover, but I could've told you that just by looking at his haircut.
  - rradu 16y ago
    His response to his haircut: http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/06/my-mohawk-and-being-the-speakertext-ceo.html http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/06/my-mohawk-and-being-the... "Simply, I decided that I was going to be a high-profile person and create a high-profile company with a very strong and meaningful brand.The mohawk, the blog, the plentiful f-bombs, etc. are all just a part of who I am as a person, but I also choose to accentuate that part of my personality for strategic reasons."
    - tommynazareth 16y ago
      Yah, what kind of decision is it to become a 'high-profile person'?
- nl 16y ago
  I don't know Matt, but it strikes me that he's very self aware. It appears to me that this is a deliberate strategy. I'm sure there is a reason for this. I think it's an interesting approach, and it certainly gains attention.
hristov 16y ago
I studied at Columbia and I have to say his tales of class snobbery are a bit over the top. Me and a lot of my friends were poor and did not feel ostracized about it. And although there were some rich kids and Saudi heiresses in class, the displays of wealth were more likely to be subject of jokes than the other way around. I remember people made fun of one girl because she took a cab to school every day (we would usually walk to school or use the subway). In general the students in my class considered themselves progressive and enlightened so any snobbery towards poor people was very unlikely to be popular. I think the writer had some bad luck in that he joined a program witch was considered to be a cash cow for the university so he ended up with a lot of rich kids. Although now that I think of it, my program was also to be considered a bit of a cash cow. If there is anything wrong with the way the school treated him, it is the fact that no-one pulled him aside to tell him something like "hey kid, this program is for rich kids and financial aid will be harder to come by, so try to find something else."
dennykmiu 16y ago
I have been an entrepreneur for over fifteen years, with one mild success and a few spectacular failures. And I must say I enjoy this article more than the rest of the articles combined in terms of explaining why entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs. The reason has nothing to do with hardship, wealth or upbringing. Anyone can become an entrepreneur. You must first possess a demon deep inside that needs to get out. The author clearly has one and my own experience is that entrepreneurship is his only cure. Good luck.

94 points by MediaSquirrel 16y ago

markstansbury 16y ago

Good read.

mvalle 16y ago
Definitely, I like the way it is written. I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like an entrepreneur wrote it. It has a feel to it.

unohoo 16y ago

The line that seemed most weird: >> In 2007, I acquired a girlfriend

trafficlight 16y ago
And in 2008 he disregarded females and acquired currency. I believe that's how the meme goes.
tommynazareth 16y ago
Yeah, I scanned through this and that line jumped right out at me.

nl 16y ago

I think Matt would have made an fucking great investment banker. ;)

rradu 16y ago

Very impressive story. Would love to hear others' stories on why / how they became entrepreneurs.

maxklein 16y ago

As impressive as the story is - it sounds very typically American. A boring American has the normal story you know. An interesting American has this story or some variation of it - maybe immigrant parents, maybe poor childhood, maybe doing something social, maybe struggling to get into college, maybe rich friends one is jealous of. Lots of American movies I'm watched have this story. Everyones story has a narrative that is a lot more interesting, but all the magazine reading and the movie watching you do forces your narrative into a typical down-up-down-up scheme, because it seems like that's the right story to tell. There is that story of those African boys who ran across the savannah and some of their friends were eaten by lions. that is a non-traditional and interesting narrative. Being top in Columbia is just about standard for an american narrative. I'm not hating on the story - but I just think that it's not that different from many stories I've read.

rradu 16y ago
Welll... yeah, that's why good stories are good stories; they're structured in a way that keeps you guessing. Best part about this story is that it's true, unlike the other places where I've seen this "model" used (hollywood)
muhfuhkuh 16y ago
>I'm not hating on the story I think it's not the flow of the narrative as much as it is the "drama for the sake of it." I mean, the way it reads, Matt seems like the guy who came up from nothing, on food stamps and government cheese. Not some son of a professor. I mean, I don't care where you come from, but most people mow their own lawns. That ain't hardship, in my opinion. And, his stories of being dejected for being not rich was kinda cloying, especially for someone who has done as his dad has and clawed his way out from a lower-middle working class background in a school where most people didn't mow their lawns because they didn't _have_ lawns. That said, he did do forest fireman work. And, he was a Paramedic. That's pretty cool. In other words, it's the choices he's made that's semi-interesting, not that he was forced down those paths he chose. He has a rebellious streak, and it's discordant with his abilities and drive for achievement in school and entrepreneurship. And, I think the takeaway (at least in his eyes) is he's not some stuff-shirt stiff when he easily could be given his abilities and work ethic.

unsignedlong 16y ago

I had never before felt bounded by social class, by economics, by mother fucking money. I remember when it hit home: I was taking a graduate seminar on Afghan Politics. After class one day, I struck up conversation with a girl sitting next to me. She asked about my background. “I used to fight forest fires,” I explained, thinking I was so cool. Her forehead crinkled. She stopped for a second, then responded: “Oh. I didn’t know they let people like that, you know, in here.” Wonderful. And Columbia has a $6 billion endowment[1] on which they pay absolutely NO TAX. They also recently used eminent domain to seize a portion of Harlem.[2] Columbia, Harvard, and every other elitist, non-profit-for-tax-purposes-only private university should have its tax exempt status revoked. 1) http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/new-york-ny/columbia-university-2707 http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/... 2) http://news.google.com/news/search?q=columbia+eminent+domain http://news.google.com/news/search?q=columbia+eminent+domain

siculars 16y ago
I actually work for Columbia and my brother graduated from their engineering school, SEAS. Now I think it's called Fu, no joke. Yes Columbia is elitist, like the other Ivys, but they do let a number of poor people in (like my brother) and give them just enough money to make it affordable with loans. Could they do better, ya I think so. But eh, what are you gonna do about it? In reality, if you are willing to become indebted to student loans and have decent grades/test scores you can get into a number of elitist institutions of higher education that will give you some sort of hardship discount. In regards to your second point, I also happen to live just a few blocks from where that whole eminent domain thing took place. Believe me, it's quite blighted but has been on the up and up in the last 5 years or so. The handful of people who held out were operating storage facilities, gas stations and mechanics shops. One of the property owners is himself a developer developing property in Westchester. Every single one of them were offered a considerable amount of money to relocate. I've seen the plans, I've been to the meetings. Columbia will bring a ton of jobs and money to the neighborhood many, many times more than the current state of affairs. Not only that but I believe they will also be opening a grade school of some sort open to children from the area. Oh, the campus will also be focused on science and technology. You know, things that have a better ROI for society than storage bins.

DanielN 16y ago

don't give up on journalism, it's only dead to those who aren't great writers, and this guy is a great writer.

araneae 16y ago

This is the most incredibly self-indulgent piece I've read all month.

tommynazareth 16y ago
I hate to judge a book by its cover, but I could've told you that just by looking at his haircut.
- rradu 16y ago
  His response to his haircut: http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/06/my-mohawk-and-being-the-speakertext-ceo.html http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/06/my-mohawk-and-being-the... "Simply, I decided that I was going to be a high-profile person and create a high-profile company with a very strong and meaningful brand.The mohawk, the blog, the plentiful f-bombs, etc. are all just a part of who I am as a person, but I also choose to accentuate that part of my personality for strategic reasons."
  - tommynazareth 16y ago
    Yah, what kind of decision is it to become a 'high-profile person'?
nl 16y ago
I don't know Matt, but it strikes me that he's very self aware. It appears to me that this is a deliberate strategy. I'm sure there is a reason for this. I think it's an interesting approach, and it certainly gains attention.

hristov 16y ago

I studied at Columbia and I have to say his tales of class snobbery are a bit over the top. Me and a lot of my friends were poor and did not feel ostracized about it. And although there were some rich kids and Saudi heiresses in class, the displays of wealth were more likely to be subject of jokes than the other way around. I remember people made fun of one girl because she took a cab to school every day (we would usually walk to school or use the subway). In general the students in my class considered themselves progressive and enlightened so any snobbery towards poor people was very unlikely to be popular. I think the writer had some bad luck in that he joined a program witch was considered to be a cash cow for the university so he ended up with a lot of rich kids. Although now that I think of it, my program was also to be considered a bit of a cash cow. If there is anything wrong with the way the school treated him, it is the fact that no-one pulled him aside to tell him something like "hey kid, this program is for rich kids and financial aid will be harder to come by, so try to find something else."

dennykmiu 16y ago

I have been an entrepreneur for over fifteen years, with one mild success and a few spectacular failures. And I must say I enjoy this article more than the rest of the articles combined in terms of explaining why entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs. The reason has nothing to do with hardship, wealth or upbringing. Anyone can become an entrepreneur. You must first possess a demon deep inside that needs to get out. The author clearly has one and my own experience is that entrepreneurship is his only cure. Good luck.