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I've always heard of this happening but I never really had a problem with it. I thankfully learned early on about getting things in writing, agreements, etc. a

I've always heard of this happening but I never really had a problem with it. I thankfully learned early on about getting things in writing, agreements, etc. after seeing people getting screwed over. I learned that if people didn't want to work with you because of your age, you shouldn't want to work with them either. I heard Zeldman say that he only works with clients that he personally likes. Something to that effect, but it rang true for me even to today. Only work with people you like. Don't get stuck in a crappy job like OP. You can get out there and do it if you try hard enough. I'm 19 now and it hardly affects me at all. In fact I feel behind. I am cofounding a startup and working full time at another startup, and I still haven't had my great succes yet. I work hard everyday and that's all that matters. Work hard, meet the right people, and use your gut. What really inspirers me are the ones that have gone out there and just killed it at a young age, it means that it is possible if you find the right way.

mpyne 14y ago
> Work hard, meet the right people, and use your gut. I've done that all, and been successful out of it. But at least in my case there was one even larger element in play: Luck. And I can't even begin to list all the different ways that I've been lucky (and unlucky), but I always keep that in the back of my mind. I could have born in Somalia, or a Brooklyn ghetto, I could have tried to make my last career move a year earlier or later (when it would have been shot down for sure), or any of 80,000 other reasons I could have failed despite hard work, talking to the right people, and using my gut. It's easy to say you won't get screwed if you're careful, but be very sure that it isn't just that you've been lucky to interact with good people.
- daeken 14y ago
  "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." - Unknown (tons of attributions) While some things are just random chance -- who your parents are, where you're born, etc -- but most things in life don't come from luck, much as we like to ascribe things to it. Most of the time it comes from hard work and -- probably more importantly -- tenacity. I've been "lucky" in a lot of ways, namely who has seen my work and decided to write about it, who's decided to hire me because of it, etc, but at the end of the day there were a dozen failures for every success. If I hadn't stuck at it, I never would've "gotten lucky".
  - mpyne 14y ago
    I do believe that it's possible to "help luck along" (kind of the same theme as how "planning is indispensable, but plans are useless"). So I'm not saying this to say "Don't try", but rather to try to counter a bit the idea that "working hard" implies success. It's usually necessary, but not always sufficient.

mpyne 14y ago

> Work hard, meet the right people, and use your gut. I've done that all, and been successful out of it. But at least in my case there was one even larger element in play: Luck. And I can't even begin to list all the different ways that I've been lucky (and unlucky), but I always keep that in the back of my mind. I could have born in Somalia, or a Brooklyn ghetto, I could have tried to make my last career move a year earlier or later (when it would have been shot down for sure), or any of 80,000 other reasons I could have failed despite hard work, talking to the right people, and using my gut. It's easy to say you won't get screwed if you're careful, but be very sure that it isn't just that you've been lucky to interact with good people.

daeken 14y ago
"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." - Unknown (tons of attributions) While some things are just random chance -- who your parents are, where you're born, etc -- but most things in life don't come from luck, much as we like to ascribe things to it. Most of the time it comes from hard work and -- probably more importantly -- tenacity. I've been "lucky" in a lot of ways, namely who has seen my work and decided to write about it, who's decided to hire me because of it, etc, but at the end of the day there were a dozen failures for every success. If I hadn't stuck at it, I never would've "gotten lucky".
- mpyne 14y ago
  I do believe that it's possible to "help luck along" (kind of the same theme as how "planning is indispensable, but plans are useless"). So I'm not saying this to say "Don't try", but rather to try to counter a bit the idea that "working hard" implies success. It's usually necessary, but not always sufficient.