3 ms·

This is a beautiful example of pure nonsense. Brooks, you sound like you were made for sales. Maybe try catering your resume towards those positions? Anyway,

This is a beautiful example of pure nonsense. Brooks, you sound like you were made for sales. Maybe try catering your resume towards those positions? Anyway, I'm an unfulfilled critic, so I don't know if your reading this, but here are the things that made my head spin about your post. 1) You editorialize a third party synopsis of your life into a headline without any indication that you're making a parody or something. "One accidental entrepreneur is finding it hard to" (This reminds me of someone during a manic episode) 2) You build your story out of clichés, but they seem incompatible with each other. (described as both "accidental entrepreneur" and "serial entrepreneur") 3) Totally ignore all important or interesting details that might indicate something about you or what your experience is. (leaving company i started for all the 'normal' and uncomfortable reasons? What?) 4) Generally weird stuff. Give me a job? If you're an entrepreneur, you'd know you wouldn't hire anyone with that attitude! Jetsetting in poverty? Anyway, best of luck. I'm sure you'll find somewhere you fit in. You sound like you're made out of enthusiasm, and that rocks. It'd be interesting to know more of the facts of your story- I think sometimes the more specific detail of a thing you can share, the more powerful it can be. (I bet one uncomfortable thing that happened to you would be cooler for me to read about than a two paragraph synopsis of the last few years of your life even!) Also I want to know how much money your parents give you =D

trevelyan 13y ago
Not intended disrespectfully, but you're too hard on the guy. I'd describe myself as an "accidental" and "serial" entrepreneur as well. The first bit means that you never expected to work for yourself. As for the "serial" part, if the companies you start aren't complete successes but aren't complete failures, it is easy to spend years trying to bootstrap multiple ideas. After you struggle along for several years regular employment starts looking pretty good (salary! vacation! benefits!), especially as you get older and want to start a family or buy a house or something. As for the rest, I agree with the parent poster that it is harder to get an institutional job after years of self-employment. Part of the problem is that entrepreneurship is like a black pool -- what people see in it is mostly the reflection of their own prejudices. I suspect this is actually one of unstated reasons there is such an emphasis on getting funding, finding accelerators, etc. and why there is such aversion to the idea of bootstrapping. At the least, people who make their businesses as institutionally respectable as possible and collect salary from investors during the process are rarely berated for taking a vacation before starting a new job! :)

trevelyan 13y ago

Not intended disrespectfully, but you're too hard on the guy. I'd describe myself as an "accidental" and "serial" entrepreneur as well. The first bit means that you never expected to work for yourself. As for the "serial" part, if the companies you start aren't complete successes but aren't complete failures, it is easy to spend years trying to bootstrap multiple ideas. After you struggle along for several years regular employment starts looking pretty good (salary! vacation! benefits!), especially as you get older and want to start a family or buy a house or something. As for the rest, I agree with the parent poster that it is harder to get an institutional job after years of self-employment. Part of the problem is that entrepreneurship is like a black pool -- what people see in it is mostly the reflection of their own prejudices. I suspect this is actually one of unstated reasons there is such an emphasis on getting funding, finding accelerators, etc. and why there is such aversion to the idea of bootstrapping. At the least, people who make their businesses as institutionally respectable as possible and collect salary from investors during the process are rarely berated for taking a vacation before starting a new job! :)