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It is indeed true that there is no basketball star who is an extremely successful musician. However these pursuits are very different than being an entrepreneur

It is indeed true that there is no basketball star who is an extremely successful musician. However these pursuits are very different than being an entrepreneur. If you're 100% focused on software engineering and 0% focused on the other things needed to be successful in the software business, you are a software engineer, not an entrepreneur.

maxklein 18y ago
Why do you insist on misunderstanding me? I am talking about solving a PROBLEM, and not creating an algorithm. Let's say you were the google guys at the start of their career. The problem they intended to solve involved getting the best result for search. This is a problem that requires 95% of your time spent at a PC. You are no enterpreneur if before you solve that problem, you are going out trying to mingle in startup school or so. Contrast that with the Amazon guy trying to solve the problem of how to retail books successfully online. This problem cannot be solved by sitting at a computer - one needs to talk to the logistics industry, publishers and so on. Focusing on the problem will lead to different social behaviour for both teams. If a person focuses on the problem and solves the problem, the difficulty in selling the solution becomes trivial. If a fellow creates a digg clone, he has not solved any problem. If a fellow creates a tool to monitor the health of students in boarding schools, he has solved a problem, and will have no difficulty in selling, because boarding schools know they need what he is offering, but never had it before. It's common sense, but people still don't seem to get it: Focusing on the problem is the only way of solving it.
- swombat 18y ago
  I think the problem with your argument is you buy the "just build something you love and people will give you money" argument. My experience, at least, has shown that not to be the case. Money needs to be balanced in the problem-solving equation along with all the other issues. Build something you love, focus on it, do everything for it - and also make sure it puts bread on the table. If you fail to do that last one, you won't be able to spend the time to really focus on the problem. Daniel
  - maxklein 18y ago
    Build something that solves a problem is what I said.

maxklein 18y ago

Why do you insist on misunderstanding me? I am talking about solving a PROBLEM, and not creating an algorithm. Let's say you were the google guys at the start of their career. The problem they intended to solve involved getting the best result for search. This is a problem that requires 95% of your time spent at a PC. You are no enterpreneur if before you solve that problem, you are going out trying to mingle in startup school or so. Contrast that with the Amazon guy trying to solve the problem of how to retail books successfully online. This problem cannot be solved by sitting at a computer - one needs to talk to the logistics industry, publishers and so on. Focusing on the problem will lead to different social behaviour for both teams. If a person focuses on the problem and solves the problem, the difficulty in selling the solution becomes trivial. If a fellow creates a digg clone, he has not solved any problem. If a fellow creates a tool to monitor the health of students in boarding schools, he has solved a problem, and will have no difficulty in selling, because boarding schools know they need what he is offering, but never had it before. It's common sense, but people still don't seem to get it: Focusing on the problem is the only way of solving it.

swombat 18y ago
I think the problem with your argument is you buy the "just build something you love and people will give you money" argument. My experience, at least, has shown that not to be the case. Money needs to be balanced in the problem-solving equation along with all the other issues. Build something you love, focus on it, do everything for it - and also make sure it puts bread on the table. If you fail to do that last one, you won't be able to spend the time to really focus on the problem. Daniel
- maxklein 18y ago
  Build something that solves a problem is what I said.