5 ms·

An excellent read. Life is rejection. I loved the symmetry between the co-founders' mutual rejection when they first met and then finally their company's reject

by Udo 14y ago

An excellent read. Life is rejection. I loved the symmetry between the co-founders' mutual rejection when they first met and then finally their company's rejection at YC. Cultural matches are important and they drive more decisions than we're all comfortable with. The truth is, we often like to hire, promote, or buy from people who fit a certain stereotype. It's essentially a cargo cult around what successful startup people are expected to look like, and the most uncomfortable thought arising from that is not the number of founders who "wrongly" received funding, but the number of hopefuls who never got the chance. However, taking the time to really get to know and appreciate a startup person is not something that can reasonably happen a lot when you're in contact with customers, the press, or even your own employees - so the (bad) impression a team makes while interviewing for an incubator or fund raising does tends to follow them around. People can and do change their appearance to match other people's expectations - and it's a proven, working method of upping your chances. Learning how to interact better with others, while certainly painful, also helps and is more often than not necessary to become successful. We're often distracted by the Zuckerbergs or Jobs' who are abrasive and embody their own don't-care-for-anything style, but the ugly truth is that those guys got so unbelievably lucky that they never needed to actually work on themselves.

fearless 14y ago
>>We're often distracted by the Zuckerbergs or Jobs' who are abrasive and embody their own don't-care-for-anything style, but the ugly truth is that those guys got so unbelievably lucky that they never needed to actually work on themselves. [citation needed]
- Udo 14y ago
  > [citation needed] This is obviously my opinion. You are free to voice another one or present data that offers another perspective. There is really no "citation needed" for every thesis a person happens to entertain, and that comment alone with no other content accomplishes absolutely nothing besides being rude. Try to reason with me, or if you're lazy, vote me down; though I personally prefer to vote on post quality rather than agreement/disagreement. [citation needed] is not a meaningful interaction in my opinion.
  - obviouslygreen 14y ago
    While I agree that "citation needed" is rampant around here, part of the reason is phrasing. You stated an opinion as a fact. A lot of people roll their eyes at this, but if you expect something to be taken as an opinion -- which is totally reasonable -- then you should phrase it that way. "I get the impression they never had to work on themselves" doesn't beg a citation. It's clearly an opinion and doesn't imply that it's attempting or intended to be anything else. It may seem pedantic, but when all people have to go on are the words you put in the form, being clear is important.
    - Udo 14y ago
      I think you have a point, but context is important. And I say this as someone who has been repeatedly accused in this forum to make abundant use of "weasel words" just to qualify the boundary between fact and opinion. As a result I don't do it as often anymore, especially when the context of the subject itself already serves as a good indicator that whatever follows will be opinion. Still, I have to admit that I do believe it to be factual that extremely successful people did not have to work on making themselves pleasant or conformant to the same degree as normal people. I explained the reasoning for this in the sister comment, but the upshot is that I indeed see this as a fact that probably could be supported by biographical evidence.
    - mindcrime 14y ago
      Meh... I used to feel that way, but over time I've realized that life is too short to stop and waste the time to put "I think" or "I feel" or "in my opinion" in front of everything I write. If I write something, it's implicit that it's my opinion. It may or may not also be a fact. In either case, if somebody disagrees or has a counter-claim or wants to present evidence to the contrary, then let them do it. But bitching because people don't load every paragraph with qualifiers, weasel-words and cop-outs is just silly.
      - obviouslygreen 14y ago
        Expecting people to say what they mean has absolutely nothing to do with weasel words or qualifiers. If you can't be bothered to communicate clearly, all you're doing is diluting your message. Hopefully you have nothing important to say, because if you do, everyone loses when you fail to say it clearly.
orangethirty 14y ago
You can create your own luck, too. Not as big s theirs, but enough to open up good opportunities. Its just a matter of spending some time away from the keyboard, talking with the people who have the keys to the doors. Almost all of the time, a simple please will get them to open up the door for you. Just ask.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  Talking to people is of course important, but it's also about being in the right place at the right time. You can't just "create your own luck."
  - orangethirty 14y ago
    That is where the being away from the keyboard part comes into action. You have to actually meet with people to be able to talk them into giving you opportunities.
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      I don't mean physically being in the right place at the right time. I mean that you happen to be interested in and start a company at the right point in history, where a confluence of technological and societal factors enable you to be that one-in-a-billion person like Jobs or the Zuck. Just running around talking to people isn't going to make you Jobs or the Zuck. It's necessary, but definitely not sufficient. Of course, that's not to say that you can't be a moderately successful entrepreneur if you "hustle" enough. Just don't expect to have books written and movies made about you. I know plenty of people who have started ventures in important niches and have found moderate success. There's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of if you exit for $10 or 20 million after a couple of years of hard work. But, going in, you have to be aware of the fact that you're almost definitely not going to end up a multi-billionaire.
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Depends on how you define "luck" I guess. In a strictly pedantic sense, I agree that you "can't create luck" as there is no such thing. Luck is just a word we apply, in retrospect, to describe what did or didn't happen. But I would argue very ardently that the expression "the harder I work, the luckier I get" contains a great deal of truth. Work, intent, and focused will can do a lot to shape the world we live in. I'm reminded of that post that showed up here a year or so back about "how to date a supermodel", which started with something like "move to where supermodels live and go the bars where they go". Yeah, that might not be sufficient, but there's a lot to be said for the "create my own luck" aspect of at least taking the actions that are needed to move you towards your goals.

by Udo 14y ago

fearless 14y ago

>>We're often distracted by the Zuckerbergs or Jobs' who are abrasive and embody their own don't-care-for-anything style, but the ugly truth is that those guys got so unbelievably lucky that they never needed to actually work on themselves. [citation needed]

Udo 14y ago
> [citation needed] This is obviously my opinion. You are free to voice another one or present data that offers another perspective. There is really no "citation needed" for every thesis a person happens to entertain, and that comment alone with no other content accomplishes absolutely nothing besides being rude. Try to reason with me, or if you're lazy, vote me down; though I personally prefer to vote on post quality rather than agreement/disagreement. [citation needed] is not a meaningful interaction in my opinion.
- obviouslygreen 14y ago
  While I agree that "citation needed" is rampant around here, part of the reason is phrasing. You stated an opinion as a fact. A lot of people roll their eyes at this, but if you expect something to be taken as an opinion -- which is totally reasonable -- then you should phrase it that way. "I get the impression they never had to work on themselves" doesn't beg a citation. It's clearly an opinion and doesn't imply that it's attempting or intended to be anything else. It may seem pedantic, but when all people have to go on are the words you put in the form, being clear is important.
  - Udo 14y ago
    I think you have a point, but context is important. And I say this as someone who has been repeatedly accused in this forum to make abundant use of "weasel words" just to qualify the boundary between fact and opinion. As a result I don't do it as often anymore, especially when the context of the subject itself already serves as a good indicator that whatever follows will be opinion. Still, I have to admit that I do believe it to be factual that extremely successful people did not have to work on making themselves pleasant or conformant to the same degree as normal people. I explained the reasoning for this in the sister comment, but the upshot is that I indeed see this as a fact that probably could be supported by biographical evidence.
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Meh... I used to feel that way, but over time I've realized that life is too short to stop and waste the time to put "I think" or "I feel" or "in my opinion" in front of everything I write. If I write something, it's implicit that it's my opinion. It may or may not also be a fact. In either case, if somebody disagrees or has a counter-claim or wants to present evidence to the contrary, then let them do it. But bitching because people don't load every paragraph with qualifiers, weasel-words and cop-outs is just silly.
    - obviouslygreen 14y ago
      Expecting people to say what they mean has absolutely nothing to do with weasel words or qualifiers. If you can't be bothered to communicate clearly, all you're doing is diluting your message. Hopefully you have nothing important to say, because if you do, everyone loses when you fail to say it clearly.

orangethirty 14y ago

You can create your own luck, too. Not as big s theirs, but enough to open up good opportunities. Its just a matter of spending some time away from the keyboard, talking with the people who have the keys to the doors. Almost all of the time, a simple please will get them to open up the door for you. Just ask.

w1ntermute 14y ago
Talking to people is of course important, but it's also about being in the right place at the right time. You can't just "create your own luck."
- orangethirty 14y ago
  That is where the being away from the keyboard part comes into action. You have to actually meet with people to be able to talk them into giving you opportunities.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    I don't mean physically being in the right place at the right time. I mean that you happen to be interested in and start a company at the right point in history, where a confluence of technological and societal factors enable you to be that one-in-a-billion person like Jobs or the Zuck. Just running around talking to people isn't going to make you Jobs or the Zuck. It's necessary, but definitely not sufficient. Of course, that's not to say that you can't be a moderately successful entrepreneur if you "hustle" enough. Just don't expect to have books written and movies made about you. I know plenty of people who have started ventures in important niches and have found moderate success. There's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of if you exit for $10 or 20 million after a couple of years of hard work. But, going in, you have to be aware of the fact that you're almost definitely not going to end up a multi-billionaire.
- mindcrime 14y ago
  Depends on how you define "luck" I guess. In a strictly pedantic sense, I agree that you "can't create luck" as there is no such thing. Luck is just a word we apply, in retrospect, to describe what did or didn't happen. But I would argue very ardently that the expression "the harder I work, the luckier I get" contains a great deal of truth. Work, intent, and focused will can do a lot to shape the world we live in. I'm reminded of that post that showed up here a year or so back about "how to date a supermodel", which started with something like "move to where supermodels live and go the bars where they go". Yeah, that might not be sufficient, but there's a lot to be said for the "create my own luck" aspect of at least taking the actions that are needed to move you towards your goals.