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Why I Wear a Disco Ball
- glass_of_water 13y agoPics with the disco ball!
- willwashburn 13y agoThere are plenty haha! I have a few extras if you want one.
- RobAley 13y agoFor those, like me, that didn't notice it at first, its a very small one on a chain around his neck. I think.
- jorts 13y agoMy old boss told me this quote and I've always loved it. When the self-made millionaire was asked what he'd do differently if he got to do it all over again, he responded "I'd ask for help."
- willwashburn 13y agoAwesome quote. Thanks.
- hkmurakami 13y agoMan... I was just told recently by a good friend that I am very good at helping people but bad at asking for help. I guess it's time for introspection...
- rmrfrmrf 13y agoThis guy is a real life Ryan Howard. Wow.
- evan_ 13y agoCounting the one with his feet in it, he's put 7 pictures of himself on that page.
- willwashburn 13y agoI mean comon, can we really count the one with my foot in it? 7 sounds waaaaay bigger than 6.
- evan_ 13y agoI didn't count the ones where you're in the mirror, you got off easy.
- willwashburn 13y agoFair. For real though, is Ryan Howard's character really into himself? Don't want to be that guy who doesn't get the joke but I am totally the guy who isn't getting the joke. IS THIS SOMETHING RYAN HOWARD WOULD SAY?!
- DanBC 13y agoHis character iterates over the different seasons. I thought it was a mean remark, but maybe I'm just a sensitive blossom. Howard does work on a startup (in a cupboard) which is pretty funny. And there are definitely worse characters on the Office. FWIW I really liked your post. You hit all the points that I've found in the past, and you included the Ben Franklin effect too.
- willwashburn 13y agoOh, haha ok. My startup had the word "social" in it, so I think some not-so-subtle jabbing is probably deserved. Appreciate you checking out the post! (and thanks for filling me in on the joke)
- 13y ago
- shaaaaawn 13y agoI just read this moments after giving in, allowing my dad to take a 401k loan in exchange for the title to my car (I insisted) to help me pay rent and keep my startup dreams afloat a cpl more months. Humility doesn't come easy for some of us. Thank you for sharing Will. I really needed to read this today.
- willwashburn 13y agoGlad you read it and got something out of it. Do whatever you can to keep it going. Awesome that you have people to help you .
- mattzito 13y ago"Do whatever you can to keep it going" only applies inasmuch as you're not taking advantage of other people to make it happen. The upthread poster taking money from his parents' retirement account to get "a few more months" on his startup and pay rent is not ideal.
- willwashburn 13y agoI hadn't thought of it that way, but you raise a good point. At what point are people enabling you and at what point are you just being prideful (if you take it or not). Obviously you have to have some discretion, but I've always struggled with that line.
- mattzito 13y agoIt's kind of like the hippocratic oath - "first, do no harm". You shouldn't be borrowing money from your parents' retirement account to get a few more months on your startup, unless it's a very specific situation.
- daeken 13y agoAgreed. If this is a "I have a signed contract that will give me $Xk next month, if I can just make it to then" situation, sure, go for it. Otherwise, it's (almost definitely) just pissing away someone's money. There's always another way: get a job or freelance for a while and work on the startup on the side, take on funding, whatever.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y agoThis guy is like all the entrepreneurs I've met, mashed together. He even has a blog full of pictures of himself. Cool story anyway.
- willwashburn 13y agoThe point of my post was to say I need to get over myself. Apparently it's still a work in progress. My b. Thanks for checking it out.
- jurassic 13y agoI enjoyed the pictures; don't listen to the haters. Milk-chugging at a disaster scene was a big enough "WTF" to keep me interested.
- willwashburn 13y agoThanks! I didn't notice there were so many at first, but now it does seem kind of vain. NOW IM QUESTIONING EVERYTHING.
- PebblesRox 13y agoIf it helps, I didn't notice that there were so many pictures. I was impressed with your honesty in sharing about your mistakes and shortcomings.
- brianbreslin 13y agoso will, what are you upto now? would love to read a follow up post.
- willwashburn 13y agoI spent the few months doing what I described in the post - pretending it didn't happen. It's amazing what you can convince yourself of. When I finally decided I was being an idiot, I started to focus on finding a job. It was way harder than I thought it would be (there is a theme of being arrogant here - another post another day). I'm now working at a startup as a software + product guy. Learning from some really smart people and loving it so far. In lots of ways, the storm was the best thing to happen to me. I can only say that because I really have a lot of great people around me. It made me appreciate all the opportunities I've been given and can sympathize more with people who haven't had the same support. Thanks for checking out the post.
- tomjen3 13y agoSo you gave up your dreams? I was hoping for a story about how you found investments in your own startup.
- RobAley 13y agoPerhaps he's just looking for a different route to get to his dreams?
- willwashburn 13y ago100%, thanks. There is more than one way to skin the old meow meow. Getting over myself enough to realize that was the big take away from all this.
- willwashburn 13y agoThe dream is still very much alive. There is more than one path, and admitting that I could use some help and a few tips here or there from the people who have already found success was a big lesson for me from the last 6 months. If you succeed, it's success. If you fail, it's experience towards success.
- iamleppert 13y agoDear Will, Are you gay? Inquiring minds want to know.
- willwashburn 13y agoNo, sorry.
- HorizonXP 13y agoUnfortunate. I'd like to be with you, and I'm straight. :-P (Thought I'd take the opportunity to make a lame joke.)
- bryne 13y agoIt says a lot about the endurance of the human spirit that in the midst of a catastrophe like Sandy, you still found the inner strength to chug a gallon of milk like a true meathead frat boy and presumably upload it straight to Facebook. The disco ball is fitting, I think. You should keep wearing it.
- gosu 13y agoNot sure where all this hate is coming from. "meathead frat boy"?
- willwashburn 13y agoThanks for having my back! I can understand how it might look if you don't know me and there's probably a lot of people who thought the same thing. Looking back, it was just a coping method. In the same way that I make lame jokes when I feel nervous, this was just a reaction to the idea that my life just got flipped upside down. And I totally posted it directly to instagram. Spade is a spade, I guess.
- gosu 13y agoI seriously don't understand why you're supposed to feel bad about posting 4 pictures of yourself and making a joke photo. It didn't seem that wanky to me, so it's surprising that it was able to inspire this many people to forget about human courtesy and throw childish insults on the interwebs. I was wondering if maybe these people know you and there's some kind of subtext here or something.
- willwashburn 13y agoIt really is difficult to chug a gallon of milk, don't knock it until you try it. I see what you're saying though. Thanks for checking it out anyway.
- mbesto 13y agoLiked the story! Curious though, why are you living on the UES, when you can live in Brooklyn for half the price?
- rdouble 13y agoUES is cheaper than Brooklyn now. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443570904577547231942958966.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044357090457754...
- mbesto 13y agoWhoa damn! I knew Williamsburg was 'up-and-coming' when I lived there but that appears to have changed a lot in the last 5 years. Gentrification at it's finest.
- willwashburn 13y agoWe were living on the upper...upper east side. We might have been able to find a cheaper apartment in the bronx, but FWIW I was paying less in the last apartment than I was when I was living in Charlotte, NC. It was a good trade off between being close enough to the "scene" and far enough away where it was cheap enough.
- skrebbel 13y agoI kept reading just to understand why anyone would willingly walk around, all the time, looking like this: http://estb.msn.com/i/AB/E27F92B0A904EC9D92B8EE897D0B4.jpg http://estb.msn.com/i/AB/E27F92B0A904EC9D92B8EE897D0B4.jpg I also wondered how he'd eat and talk and sleep. I didn't understand what it had to do with startups and hurricanes. It took a while until I realized that that's not what "wearing a disco ball" means in NY.
- emiliobumachar 13y agoPlease do enlighten me. I read the whole post and am still not sure. Searching the web seems to be polluted by a nail polish brand named 'disco ball'. Is it simply slang for not taking oneself too seriously?
- skrebbel 13y agoI suspect that he has a little disco ball hanger on a necklace or bracelet or something. I'm sure he'll tell us himself soon enough.
- oinksoft 13y agoSorry if I'm being obtuse ... you did see the large photograph at the top of this blog post showing the author wearing said disco ball necklace, drinking milk? http://i.imgur.com/DdeDfzyl.jpg http://i.imgur.com/DdeDfzyl.jpg
- emiliobumachar 13y agoI had seen the picture, but I had totally missed the necklace. Thank you.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- willwashburn 13y ago"Is it simply slang for not taking oneself too seriously?" That kind of works actually. I'll see if I can get it to stick, haha.
- gnoway 13y agoI haven't read the post, just these comments. Easily the strangest comments I've seen in the past 4-6 months.