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Asking a woman out. Giving a lightning talk at a conference. Shutting down a website to drastically change direction. Launching a product most people will call
by nicholasjbs 16y ago
Asking a woman out. Giving a lightning talk at a conference. Shutting down a website to drastically change direction. Launching a product most people will call a "toy" or "feature."
You're right that there are objective downsides to startups (e.g., time sunk into something that doesn't pan out), but the lower bound is known and, to me at least, not that bad. Working on a startup that fails isn't like shorting stocks (which has a theoretically unlimited downside). In fact, I'd argue the worst case is many times better than working two years at Microsoft or Google, at least in terms of personal growth and development.
- nostrademons 16y agoI founded a startup that failed and then worked for Google for 2 years (and counting...). I'd say they were about equal in terms of personal growth and development, but taught me very different things. Failing at a startup taught me a lot about myself, what I really value and want to do, what my tolerance for ambiguity and stress and risk is, and so on. Working for Google taught me a lot about the world, what other people value and want to do, user expectations and how they'll never be satisfied, plus a whole bunch of technical skills. Hopefully, combining them together means the next startup will succeed. :-) It doesn't have to be an either/or. There's plenty of time to both fail at a startup and work a couple years at Google.