4 ms·
Missed opportunities
- adrianwaj 15y agoRepentance is always good. Have you thought of doing a Milner style blanket investment on a YC cycle?
- corin_ 15y agoIf you don't have your fair share of failures after a while, then you're probably not trying hard enough, or at least not exposing yourself to enough opportunities. That's a valid point, but I think that not investing in something isn't the same as trying and failing - if anything, it's avoiding trying so as to avoid failing, and later realising that you exposed yourself to too few opportunities, not too many. Trying and failing is when you invest in something that ends up losing you money - and yes, if you never do that (either in investments, or a similar analogy in any other area of life) then you're not taking enough risks.
- ziffusion 15y agoAh, I see. So you are saying that now, that you know for sure, that they were good opportunities, you should have invested. But back then, when it wasn't that clear that they were good ideas, you were reluctant to.
- dreary 15y agoI think that's a good observation. Anyone with experience of gambling can relate to this, Nobody ever put enough on a winning horse.
- bdr 15y agoThe point is that it would have been clear, had he thought a little harder or had more conviction. This kind of analysis is useful because it can affect future behavior.
- kls 15y agoThe one that kills me was Apple at $11 a share. I was broke and just starting out at my first real job. I told everyone that would listen to buy and only one of my buddies did, he bought 1000 shares that he still owns. I told everyone that would listen all the reasons Bill Gates would bail them out. Now I never could have imagined that Apple would be where it is today, but I did know that Microsoft had too much at risk to let them fail. I did all right in life, but that one still bothers me because it was so obvious, at the time I literally did not have enough to buy a single share. I would have bet it all if I had a chunk of capital back then.
- dstein 15y agoTry trading in the stock market. Missed opportunities become a way of life.
- Hisoka 15y agoJust curious, what were those angel investment opportunities you passed on?
- Hisoka 15y agoJust curious, what were those angel investment opportunities you passed on?
- Lost_BiomedE 15y agoMissed opportunities aren't always a failure. The important part is understanding why you missed the opportunity, what circumstances allowed for it to pay off, and what risks were overcome and how. Just because a bet wins big, does not always mean it was a good bet. When you have little money, that can be relatively easily to replace, capital preservation is not a big concern. Once you have hit one or two big ones, the game changes. You better have a good idea what the risks and rewards are before putting your money down. All the missed opportunities suddenly become the foundation for your ability to be successful at inherently risky endeavors. If you learned from them, they may have saved you a lot of grief experiencing a full wipe-out. I value my missed opportunities quite a bit, and have learned more from them than actual straight-up failures. The successes I have learned from even more, though.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- joshu 15y agoWhat about all the things you passed on and were right about? I have my list of missed deals too, but I also have a huge list where I guessed correctly.
- kayhi 15y agoStock opportunities are my favorite to miss since at least I know what happened... seems most of life opportunities you'll never know. Should I have studied harder for that test? Should I spend time on my project or hanging out with my friends? Asked that person out for a drink?
- creativeone 15y agoI missed out on goog and eBay, not that it's too late. But the ipo that I won't miss out on investing in will be Craigslist, if Craig newmark ever decides to go public. My strategy is: invest in what you use and understand.