7 ms·

Yeah, this is one of the things that drives me nuts about these "inspirational" stories where some millionaire/billionaire talks proudly about how their first b

Yeah, this is one of the things that drives me nuts about these "inspirational" stories where some millionaire/billionaire talks proudly about how their first business failed, their car was repo'd, bank foreclosed on them, etc... but I've never heard one talk about what they did between that and the successful business. Where did they sleep? How did they afford food?

SoftTalker 4y ago
Varies but mostly you go get a job for a while.
- dieselgate 4y ago
  Indeed. I’m not an entrepreneur or anything but liken it a bit to having a good initial poker hand - you can win with one good card but it is helpful and gives one more options to have two good cards. So in the context of bootstrapping a company it’s helpful to have a legit fallback (way to suck it up and find an OK job) when things don’t pan out. Edit: maybe this is obvious for CS/software folks but the extracurricular work I’m involved with is not exactly tech related, though my day job is coding
- moralestapia 4y ago
  The secret is that sometimes you just have to ... sigh ... work.
  - jollofricepeas 4y ago
    Of course. We work jobs and do our thing on the side like most traditional American entrepreneurs do until their business gets off the ground. Who the hell is bootstrapping businesses without a job besides rich kids? 1. Get a cheap apartment in a slightly sketchy neighborhood 2. Work 7-8 hours at work and every other waking hour on your business. Take meetings during lunch. 3. Focus to the point of cutting out sports, video games, bars and other frivolous shit until you’ve made progress. Don’t date if you can. Discipline wins the race. And when you fail; which you will. Do it all over again until you find success.
    - doetoe 4y ago
      > Do it all over again until you find success. For which you may have to be somewhat lucky
    - oxfordmale 4y ago
      There is a parable I can't remember. The gist is as follows. A man/woman has a nice life, a cheap apartment in an okay neighbourhood. Their 9-5 job isn't particularly exciting or well-paid; however, at the weekend, it allows them to enjoy sports, video games and other frivolous activities, such as dating and hanging out with their partner or children. A stranger approaches them and says they make a much better life for themselves. He tells them they just need to get a cheap apartment in a sketchy neighbourhood, work all waking hours of the day, and give up any fun until they make it. They may fail five times until they succeed and may be declared bankrupt. After listening, they ask what their life looks like after they make it. He answers it allows them to have an okay apartment in a more expensive neighbourhood, and they can enjoy sports, video games and other frivolous activities, such as dating and hanging out with their partner or children. They smile at the stranger, and say "But I already have most of this right now". The stranger walks off wearily.
      - altdataseller 4y ago
        The parable is about a fisher
        oxfordmale 4y ago
        Do you happen to have an URL to the parable? I was confusing it with a man sitting below an olive tree, maybe a variant of the fisher one.
        altdataseller 4y ago
        https://joneytalks.medium.com/the-parable-of-the-mexican-fisherman-and-the-banker-f1c064f323f5 https://joneytalks.medium.com/the-parable-of-the-mexican-fis...
SamReidHughes 4y ago
> Where did they sleep? Maybe at least one of their parents had a sofa. The trick is to have parents who aren't homeless.
- bcrosby95 4y ago
  Having a strong support group in your life is probably one of the most important things to success. Few paths go straight from a to b without a misstep.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > Having a strong support group in your life is probably one of the most important things to success. This. “It's not what you know its who you know.” Though often the people who give that advice privately are the most invested in maintaining the illusion of meritocracy publicly.
- starkparker 4y ago
  Here's how I fare on that. Each checked box is something I have. [X] "The trick is to have parents", [ ] who are alive, [ ] "who aren't homeless", [ ] who have housing that is safe and functional, [ ] who have room for you not already occupied by other family members in greater need, [ ] who "had a sofa", [ ] or if they're dead, at least left you with enough money as an equivalent
  - klipt 4y ago
    Who live nearby. If you're an immigrant and your parents live another continent, hard to live on their sofa and then get a new visa to come back.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - unactionintel 4y ago
    I'm never sure what to do with this class of comment - it reminds me of guys who say they can't get a girlfriend because they're 5'8". (Also, you forgot people whose parents are able-but-unwilling. This also sometimes makes some things harder than they would be, compared to, say, being given fistfulls of cash each weekend by your rich parents who have a sofa AND a bed.)
bboygravity 4y ago
They do talk about that. Elon Musk cleaned out manure tanks for a while in Canada if I'm not mistaking. There are some interviews where he talks about this (and showering at the gym across the street and sleeping under a desk and having no money) in quite some detail.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- captainlol 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - vidarh 4y ago
    There are lots of people from wealthy backgrounds who'll slum it for a while. There's not usually a reason to doubt that. The thing to keep in mind is that voluntary/temporary poverty is very different from poverty you can't get out of with an embarrassing phone call. I lived in relative poverty for a while when doing my first business, and while my parents were not particularly wealthy, knowing they provided an escape hatch took a lot of pressure off (living somewhere with a highly functional welfare system provided additional comfort). Things could have crashed and burned at any time, and I'd likely have been better off financially.
- michaelmrose 4y ago
  His family was rich he is as self made as Trump.
- Swenrekcah 4y ago
  Doesn’t he come from a South-African diamond family or something?
  - lovecg 4y ago
    If Wikipedia or Snopes are to be believed on the matter (and I really don’t know anymore), this is way overblown. Mines (emerald, not diamond btw) are cheaper than you think. If my dad buys half of a tiny mine in his retirement I’ll start walking around claiming I’m from a mine owning family! The story of how he even got to own the mine sounds pretty wild: “According to the story, in the mid-1980s, Errol and a copilot landed their plane near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia, where "a group of Italians" offered them 80,000 pounds in British currency in order to buy the plane. Standing with the cash in his hand, Errol was made another offer he couldn't refuse: Would he like to buy half an emerald mine for half of his new riches? "I said, 'Oh, all right'. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years."” It proceeds to say he made about $400000 from the mine in total - hardly a billionaire villain level money. https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/ https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-min... I think the null hypothesis that Musk got lucky in the dotcom era is pretty reasonable, lots of people did. I don’t get all the conspiracy theories.
mock-possum 4y ago
right, also we don't like hearing stories about all the entrepreneurs who failed to find success, and slipped into impoverished obscurity. How many kids are sitting in the back seat of the car, lamenting "I could have been a contender" you know? You don't hang out with the ones who failed to keep their heads above water, because you're afraid they're going to drown you too.

SoftTalker 4y ago

Varies but mostly you go get a job for a while.

dieselgate 4y ago
Indeed. I’m not an entrepreneur or anything but liken it a bit to having a good initial poker hand - you can win with one good card but it is helpful and gives one more options to have two good cards. So in the context of bootstrapping a company it’s helpful to have a legit fallback (way to suck it up and find an OK job) when things don’t pan out. Edit: maybe this is obvious for CS/software folks but the extracurricular work I’m involved with is not exactly tech related, though my day job is coding
moralestapia 4y ago
The secret is that sometimes you just have to ... sigh ... work.
- jollofricepeas 4y ago
  Of course. We work jobs and do our thing on the side like most traditional American entrepreneurs do until their business gets off the ground. Who the hell is bootstrapping businesses without a job besides rich kids? 1. Get a cheap apartment in a slightly sketchy neighborhood 2. Work 7-8 hours at work and every other waking hour on your business. Take meetings during lunch. 3. Focus to the point of cutting out sports, video games, bars and other frivolous shit until you’ve made progress. Don’t date if you can. Discipline wins the race. And when you fail; which you will. Do it all over again until you find success.
  - doetoe 4y ago
    > Do it all over again until you find success. For which you may have to be somewhat lucky
  - oxfordmale 4y ago
    There is a parable I can't remember. The gist is as follows. A man/woman has a nice life, a cheap apartment in an okay neighbourhood. Their 9-5 job isn't particularly exciting or well-paid; however, at the weekend, it allows them to enjoy sports, video games and other frivolous activities, such as dating and hanging out with their partner or children. A stranger approaches them and says they make a much better life for themselves. He tells them they just need to get a cheap apartment in a sketchy neighbourhood, work all waking hours of the day, and give up any fun until they make it. They may fail five times until they succeed and may be declared bankrupt. After listening, they ask what their life looks like after they make it. He answers it allows them to have an okay apartment in a more expensive neighbourhood, and they can enjoy sports, video games and other frivolous activities, such as dating and hanging out with their partner or children. They smile at the stranger, and say "But I already have most of this right now". The stranger walks off wearily.
    - altdataseller 4y ago
      The parable is about a fisher
      - oxfordmale 4y ago
        Do you happen to have an URL to the parable? I was confusing it with a man sitting below an olive tree, maybe a variant of the fisher one.
        altdataseller 4y ago
        https://joneytalks.medium.com/the-parable-of-the-mexican-fisherman-and-the-banker-f1c064f323f5 https://joneytalks.medium.com/the-parable-of-the-mexican-fis...

SamReidHughes 4y ago

> Where did they sleep? Maybe at least one of their parents had a sofa. The trick is to have parents who aren't homeless.

bcrosby95 4y ago
Having a strong support group in your life is probably one of the most important things to success. Few paths go straight from a to b without a misstep.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > Having a strong support group in your life is probably one of the most important things to success. This. “It's not what you know its who you know.” Though often the people who give that advice privately are the most invested in maintaining the illusion of meritocracy publicly.
starkparker 4y ago
Here's how I fare on that. Each checked box is something I have. [X] "The trick is to have parents", [ ] who are alive, [ ] "who aren't homeless", [ ] who have housing that is safe and functional, [ ] who have room for you not already occupied by other family members in greater need, [ ] who "had a sofa", [ ] or if they're dead, at least left you with enough money as an equivalent
- klipt 4y ago
  Who live nearby. If you're an immigrant and your parents live another continent, hard to live on their sofa and then get a new visa to come back.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- unactionintel 4y ago
  I'm never sure what to do with this class of comment - it reminds me of guys who say they can't get a girlfriend because they're 5'8". (Also, you forgot people whose parents are able-but-unwilling. This also sometimes makes some things harder than they would be, compared to, say, being given fistfulls of cash each weekend by your rich parents who have a sofa AND a bed.)

bboygravity 4y ago

They do talk about that. Elon Musk cleaned out manure tanks for a while in Canada if I'm not mistaking. There are some interviews where he talks about this (and showering at the gym across the street and sleeping under a desk and having no money) in quite some detail.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
captainlol 4y ago
[flagged]
- vidarh 4y ago
  There are lots of people from wealthy backgrounds who'll slum it for a while. There's not usually a reason to doubt that. The thing to keep in mind is that voluntary/temporary poverty is very different from poverty you can't get out of with an embarrassing phone call. I lived in relative poverty for a while when doing my first business, and while my parents were not particularly wealthy, knowing they provided an escape hatch took a lot of pressure off (living somewhere with a highly functional welfare system provided additional comfort). Things could have crashed and burned at any time, and I'd likely have been better off financially.
michaelmrose 4y ago
His family was rich he is as self made as Trump.
Swenrekcah 4y ago
Doesn’t he come from a South-African diamond family or something?
- lovecg 4y ago
  If Wikipedia or Snopes are to be believed on the matter (and I really don’t know anymore), this is way overblown. Mines (emerald, not diamond btw) are cheaper than you think. If my dad buys half of a tiny mine in his retirement I’ll start walking around claiming I’m from a mine owning family! The story of how he even got to own the mine sounds pretty wild: “According to the story, in the mid-1980s, Errol and a copilot landed their plane near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia, where "a group of Italians" offered them 80,000 pounds in British currency in order to buy the plane. Standing with the cash in his hand, Errol was made another offer he couldn't refuse: Would he like to buy half an emerald mine for half of his new riches? "I said, 'Oh, all right'. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years."” It proceeds to say he made about $400000 from the mine in total - hardly a billionaire villain level money. https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/ https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-min... I think the null hypothesis that Musk got lucky in the dotcom era is pretty reasonable, lots of people did. I don’t get all the conspiracy theories.

mock-possum 4y ago

right, also we don't like hearing stories about all the entrepreneurs who failed to find success, and slipped into impoverished obscurity. How many kids are sitting in the back seat of the car, lamenting "I could have been a contender" you know? You don't hang out with the ones who failed to keep their heads above water, because you're afraid they're going to drown you too.