4 ms·

Good content, but my favorite part of the article is the anecdote about how Paul started at Google. Putting yourself in a place where you have the opportunity

by d4ft 16y ago

Good content, but my favorite part of the article is the anecdote about how Paul started at Google. Putting yourself in a place where you have the opportunity to be lucky makes up some percentage of the total likelihood of being extremely successful (yes, I consider Paul extremely successful along many axes), but I think a much larger portion of this equation is actually being lucky. I guess if you iterate over and over again, by say joining startups repeatedly, eventually most people get lucky in some way. The magnitude of that success however, is certainly highly variant.

raganwald 16y ago
Even though I haven't been "successful" with startups (yet), I feel I've been very lucky. Anybody else feel that way?
- usrusrusr 16y ago
  If you tie your success to only how well a company is going to do, you are setting up for fail (And feeling unlucky, and so slightly pissed off at work.). There are too many external factors deciding that. I measure my success in many ways. 1. Do I havea loving family. Check. 2. Do I have fulfilling hobbies. Check. 3. Do I have enough money to fulfill my responsibilities and hobby, doing things I love. Check. 4. Do I have as much money as I would want to call myself successful. Not yet. Tying my success to many parameters I can feel a little successful everyday, and continue to feel lucky, and continue to work toward what I would call a successful startup.
  - d4ft 16y ago
    This reminds me of portfolio theory in finance: as long as your goals are diverse enough, generally you will track the market (i.e. how life is going generally). That being said, I think the most successful business people are those that really closely tie their happiness with the success of the company (Steve Jobs, I think, is a good example).
    - raganwald 16y ago
      > Steve Jobs If you feel he's a good role model, then what do we make of him being cast out of Eden by his own board, and then having NeXT going basically nowhere until Apple begged him to come back and bought the company for its OS and as a talent acquisition? I suspect he's been happier in a certain sense when his actions have been validated by the market, but at the same time, I strongly suspect he has certain other motivations that drive him and he's happy when he acts in harmony with those motivations. The marketplace validating his work is probably just icing on the cake. That's all just speculation I pulled out of my Ass, of course!
raintrees 16y ago
"Chance favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur
- billswift 16y ago
  Repeating a comment I made a couple of weeks ago on another post on serendipity - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1786959 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1786959 - This is even stronger than Pasteur's famous, "Chance favors the prepared mind" - if you are not actually working on a problem, there is no possible way to benefit from serendipity.
- cousin_it 16y ago
  "Random selection is biased in favour of lucky people." - Roy A. Sorensen

by d4ft 16y ago

raganwald 16y ago

Even though I haven't been "successful" with startups (yet), I feel I've been very lucky. Anybody else feel that way?

usrusrusr 16y ago
If you tie your success to only how well a company is going to do, you are setting up for fail (And feeling unlucky, and so slightly pissed off at work.). There are too many external factors deciding that. I measure my success in many ways. 1. Do I havea loving family. Check. 2. Do I have fulfilling hobbies. Check. 3. Do I have enough money to fulfill my responsibilities and hobby, doing things I love. Check. 4. Do I have as much money as I would want to call myself successful. Not yet. Tying my success to many parameters I can feel a little successful everyday, and continue to feel lucky, and continue to work toward what I would call a successful startup.
- d4ft 16y ago
  This reminds me of portfolio theory in finance: as long as your goals are diverse enough, generally you will track the market (i.e. how life is going generally). That being said, I think the most successful business people are those that really closely tie their happiness with the success of the company (Steve Jobs, I think, is a good example).
  - raganwald 16y ago
    > Steve Jobs If you feel he's a good role model, then what do we make of him being cast out of Eden by his own board, and then having NeXT going basically nowhere until Apple begged him to come back and bought the company for its OS and as a talent acquisition? I suspect he's been happier in a certain sense when his actions have been validated by the market, but at the same time, I strongly suspect he has certain other motivations that drive him and he's happy when he acts in harmony with those motivations. The marketplace validating his work is probably just icing on the cake. That's all just speculation I pulled out of my Ass, of course!

raintrees 16y ago

"Chance favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur

billswift 16y ago
Repeating a comment I made a couple of weeks ago on another post on serendipity - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1786959 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1786959 - This is even stronger than Pasteur's famous, "Chance favors the prepared mind" - if you are not actually working on a problem, there is no possible way to benefit from serendipity.
cousin_it 16y ago
"Random selection is biased in favour of lucky people." - Roy A. Sorensen