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> For some people, they come out the other side a better person in almost every sense, with a much stronger identity and mental fortitude. Could you elaborate

by jyscao 5y ago

> For some people, they come out the other side a better person in almost every sense, with a much stronger identity and mental fortitude. Could you elaborate a bit more on this point, based on your own personal experience with entrepreneurship?

iamstupidsimple 5y ago
The comment below put it rather succinctly. > Avoiding pain and hardship is hardly a way to discover life. Strife is character building, and can lead to a more experienced, well-rounded person, if you're lucky. Of course, it can go the other way too.
- WJW 5y ago
  This makes me wonder if anyone has done thorough (and replicable) research into which amount of strife leads which percentage of people to become more well-rounded rather than bitter and traumatized. I agree that zero strife is probably not the optimal amount. OTOH, there are many people who manage to work their way up out of the ghetto but are definitely not well-adjusted. The agressive paranoia and constant need to prove their "big-ness" are very telling. You can see this in a lot of war survivors too, the constant suffering and uncertainty just breaks people in ways that are almost impossible to recover from.
- jyscao 5y ago
  I completely agree. People only grow when they step outside of their comfort zones, whether intentionally or not. But there are many more ways to do that than starting your own business. I suppose doing that provides an even greater dosage of that than most other things.
jandrewrogers 5y ago
Every personal weakness is exposed. Entrepreneurship requires you to be a relatively “complete” person to be successful. In my estimation, I, like most people had to learn how to be that person on the fly. That is not easy. You realize just how much you don’t know when faced with decisions and problems that you alone are required to address. It is a rough learning experience. If you don’t get ground up in that process, you come out the other side a different and much more capable person. It almost gives you superpowers, even in large corporate structures, because few people know what you know about how to make things happen. For me, I came out the other side able to land in almost any organization and have an immediate impact at scale no matter how large those organizations were. It was a powerful education though I did not understand it at the time.
- jyscao 5y ago
  That's very inspiring to hear. I'm in my early 30s, and do often think about if/when I should pull the trigger and try and build something for myself. I guess I just don't feel my current skills (even the technical ones) are sufficient to really get things done well yet.
AlbertCory 5y ago
I'm blown away by the depth and intelligence of all these comments. So unlike other social media. As for personal experience: I went through two startups. The first cratered and was a horrible experience from start to finish. The other IPO'ed. Did the first make me a better person? It would be hard to make that argument. I spent 10-15 years recovering from it. However, it made me realize that the startup is, as the cliche goes, "the lengthened shadow of one man." The folks who ran the second one are not just smarter than I am, they are better people. The old-fashioned notions of "character" really do apply here. You can also make money in a place led by bad people, but you have to more careful because they won't hesitate to screw you.

by jyscao 5y ago

iamstupidsimple 5y ago

The comment below put it rather succinctly. > Avoiding pain and hardship is hardly a way to discover life. Strife is character building, and can lead to a more experienced, well-rounded person, if you're lucky. Of course, it can go the other way too.

WJW 5y ago
This makes me wonder if anyone has done thorough (and replicable) research into which amount of strife leads which percentage of people to become more well-rounded rather than bitter and traumatized. I agree that zero strife is probably not the optimal amount. OTOH, there are many people who manage to work their way up out of the ghetto but are definitely not well-adjusted. The agressive paranoia and constant need to prove their "big-ness" are very telling. You can see this in a lot of war survivors too, the constant suffering and uncertainty just breaks people in ways that are almost impossible to recover from.
jyscao 5y ago
I completely agree. People only grow when they step outside of their comfort zones, whether intentionally or not. But there are many more ways to do that than starting your own business. I suppose doing that provides an even greater dosage of that than most other things.

jandrewrogers 5y ago

Every personal weakness is exposed. Entrepreneurship requires you to be a relatively “complete” person to be successful. In my estimation, I, like most people had to learn how to be that person on the fly. That is not easy. You realize just how much you don’t know when faced with decisions and problems that you alone are required to address. It is a rough learning experience. If you don’t get ground up in that process, you come out the other side a different and much more capable person. It almost gives you superpowers, even in large corporate structures, because few people know what you know about how to make things happen. For me, I came out the other side able to land in almost any organization and have an immediate impact at scale no matter how large those organizations were. It was a powerful education though I did not understand it at the time.

jyscao 5y ago
That's very inspiring to hear. I'm in my early 30s, and do often think about if/when I should pull the trigger and try and build something for myself. I guess I just don't feel my current skills (even the technical ones) are sufficient to really get things done well yet.

AlbertCory 5y ago

I'm blown away by the depth and intelligence of all these comments. So unlike other social media. As for personal experience: I went through two startups. The first cratered and was a horrible experience from start to finish. The other IPO'ed. Did the first make me a better person? It would be hard to make that argument. I spent 10-15 years recovering from it. However, it made me realize that the startup is, as the cliche goes, "the lengthened shadow of one man." The folks who ran the second one are not just smarter than I am, they are better people. The old-fashioned notions of "character" really do apply here. You can also make money in a place led by bad people, but you have to more careful because they won't hesitate to screw you.