9 ms·

Most people won't

161 points by imd23 13y ago

imd23 13y ago
I couldn't feel more identified. I've done similar things sometimes (not playing at that level but, similar in the end) and what I felt was a big discomfort and a really huge passion for something. You want to defend your values. These two together creates a willingness to change the status quo and make something better can move mountains. At the same time I can say this seconds you are terribly fragile. Not even courage is needed. That's why it's so difficult to explain, it's something you feel inside and need to get out.
md224 13y ago
I've been kind of struggling lately with this sort of inspirational attitude. It seems like a good attitude, but it also comes with this hidden assumption: if you try hard and keep at it, there's a good chance you'll succeed. Is this actually true? I mean I want it to be true. I'd like to live in a world where it's true. But I don't actually have any hard evidence besides the testimonials of people who have found success, and I'm not sure if it's survivorship bias or an accurate picture of how one can become successful. My theory is that chances of success are incredibly variable, and trying hard and putting yourself out there will increase that chance, but I can't figure out a ballpark for the baseline. Is it even possible to crunch the numbers on something like this? I feel like we'll never know. Knowing you gave it a shot is the important part, I suppose.
- Thatguise 13y ago
  It is, it has been done, statistically when it comes to financial success America is fast becoming one of the countries where its most unlikely to go from rags to riches. Its not a lie, its big data crunching the numbers that are out there, and those numbers say if you are poor you are most likely going to end poor, or perhaps dirt poor.
  - altr3g0 13y ago
    Nothing against you or the person who did that research, but: fuck statistics. Eventually one gets to defy them!
    - Thatguise 13y ago
      Why don't you go back to youtube comments, or better yet the first grade?
    - delluminatus 13y ago
      Seriously? Fuck statistics?
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
    - Thatguise 13y ago
      Yeah my mistake I shouldn't have used "rags to riches" since no country has ever had as a statistical point. No, what I meant which is what you are talking about is "upward mobility" and that is exactly what is going down in America: the plausibility of reaching a higher economical status than the one you were born in to, not necessarily becoming a millionaire. That was the American Dream, and right now the average American has the same chances of upward mobility than the average citizen of a third world country.
- WalterBright 13y ago
  The failure rate for those who don't try is 100%.
  - md224 13y ago
    But what if the failure rate for those who do try is 99%? Trying isn't always zero-risk... I wonder if ambition could be subject to a cost/benefit analysis, haha. At some point I suppose you just have to let go of the numbers.
    - winstonian 13y ago
      I once heard the phrase, "Don't be a pussy and quit fucking around". It has become a phrase I live by.
    - rosser 13y ago
      What's the cost/benefit breakdown of not taking the risk?
      - Joeboy 13y ago
        I don't really understand how we've ended up at this line of argument. There is no significant risk to talking shit at a bar. Other than the fact that being in the bar in the first place is generally a good way to avoid opportunities.
    - WalterBright 13y ago
      If you are looking for reasons to not try, you're going to find an endless supply of them. I've done a lot of things that people relentlessly told me I had no chance of accomplishing.
      - delluminatus 13y ago
        You are either... 1. Extraordinary, and able to achieve what others cannot. 2. Lucky, and by chance successful in an area where success is hard to find. 3. Being told that you have no chance of accomplishing things that are actually not very hard. 4. A living example of how anybody can do that which they set their mind to. If you're 1, then other people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you're 2, then people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you're 3, then people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you think you're 4, then you're either 1, 2, or 3, and just don't realize it yet.
- DanielRibeiro 13y ago
  Steve Jobs started a personal story with [1]: "Most people don't get those experiences because they never ask..." And he ends with "you gotta be willing to fail ... if you are afraid of failing, you won't get very far" Which seems to be a surprisingly common theme among successful people: Mark Suster has a famous mantra: "You don't ask, you don't get"[2] Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, told a story of how he got Steve Balmer advise him once[3] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI [2] http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/15/the-one-word-that-shouldnt-exist-in-an-entrepreneurs-vocabulary/ http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/15/the-one-word-t... [3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqm9NXug6WE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqm9NXug6WE
- hayksaakian 13y ago
  Trying is a way to create and execute on opportunities. You could think about it as creating your own luck. The only problem is that at the end of the day it's still luck.
- sodafountan 13y ago
  Of course it's true. I'm a terrible bowler, I could roll the ball in the gutter a million fucking times but if I keep TRYING to get a strike, EVENTUALLY i'll get one. That's different from just rolling the ball down the lane. If I don't change something up and learn from my mistakes and learn how to angle the ball and learn how much force to give it then i'll keep rolling the ball in the gutter, sure i can shrug to my friends and tell them I "tried" but i'd know deep down that I didn't... Don't fall into the fallacy of staying in your comfort zone and trying just for the sake of trying.. You'll never grow. You have to be willing to challenge yourself and do things just a little different next time to really become better and finally get that strike. And when all is said and done you'll probably be a pretty good bowler.. then you can blog about it.
- neovi 13y ago
  I've been thinking about this lately, too. What I find weird is all that inspiration/motivation about hard work and going after your dreams is very big in MLM businesses yet ~16million people account for ~$32billion in annual sales (divided equally: $2,000/person) [1]. I don't have any specific source on startups, but the thought that working as hard as you can will make your dreams come through seems prevalent, too. My thinking (and I'm really wanting a conversation over this because it's an interesting topic) is that not only should one work hard, but make smart moves. Using startups as an example, a person could hack away 100hrs/week on a social network for pets while another person could be putting in 20hrs/week on a monetization tool for Instagram. The former is putting in more hours, but the latter has a higher chance (if by only a tiny percent) simply because it's in a position to 1. be acquired and 2. solve the problem of Instagram not having a model. So they're both putting in work, assuming good attitude, and taking the chance as OP's point was. Yet it seems the defining factor is where all that energy is directed to. [1] http://www.dsa.org/research/industry-statistics/ http://www.dsa.org/research/industry-statistics/
- saturdayplace 13y ago
  I don't think you're going to get the numbers you're after, and hopefully you can live with having given an honest effort if you fail. The truth is, having this kind of attitude, and doing the work that comes along with it, is necessary but generally insufficient for success. Meaning, you can get there with with work + (some Other Factors), but you absolutely won't get there without it. Which is why the stories you hear about successful people all include the "hard work paid off" bit. Other Factors can include but are not limited to: having the right contacts, being in the right place at the right time, having a unique insight into the market, etc. Looking at a list like that might be dispiriting because the items all appear to be frustratingly correlated with random chance. And that's partly true. But what is also true, is that doing certain kinds of work often has the interesting side-effect of raising your chances for bumping into one of those other factors. Which is what you were saying above. For example, working hard in, and paying attention to business in a given industry for a while might a) Give you insight into how something might be done better, and b) introduce you to people working in that industry who could help you out by b1) teaching you more about it, b2) directing you to others who can, b3) becoming a collaborator with you, or b4) pointing you to capital resources interested in solving relevant problems. I mean, yeah in the end, in business you're likely to fail. Most businesses fail. Most people who have the right attitude and do the requisite work fail. But you can't get to the top of the mountain without hiking.
- larrys 13y ago
  "there's a good chance you'll succeed. Is this actually true?" Depends on what you mean by "good chance" obviously. And "succeed". "accurate picture of how one can become successful." I looked at your website from your profile. Being successful at the "creative" things you are good at would be much more difficult than some of the other less creative things you have listed. There are (from my observation and I believe this is common knowledge) many people who have really good creative skills in music, art, acting etc and no where near enough opportunities for those people to make a good career out of it. In that case the hustle is probably even more important than the skill level (not that that's not important). But even with hustle it can be random. And there are many people hustling to get ahead. You aren't competing with people to get a job as a dental hygienist who really isn't super into their job, right? Some of your competitors are really totally over the top in their commitment to doing what you want to do. They aren't phoning it in or anything. Like with dating or landing a job you only have to be right one time (well assuming you find "the right one"). Not like selling where you have to find a certain number of sales per time period. So you have to assess how much time and effort it takes to get a sale and extrapolate.
- Xixi 13y ago
  When you hear that an entrepreneur should not be afraid of failure, I think you are misunderstanding it. It doesn't mean that failure is unlikely, it means that failure is not a big deal. Corollary: whatever bold move you want to try, make sure that failing is not going to be a problem, especially a financial one. Note that in this context it is assumed that embarrassing yourself is most definitely not a big deal, which is way easier to say than to act upon. In the story linked, what was the worst thing that could happen to this lady? The CEO taking the remark the wrong way and being pissed? Or laughing at her, maybe? Who cares? You quit your job and start a company? Depending on the kind of company, your chance of success will vary considerably. After you failed, you just get a new job/go back to your previous job and that's it. You lost a couple months of incomes, some savings, and you can laugh at your epic failure with your friends. The dirty secret is that your friends will probably love you more after you failed, because truth being told, they are unlikely to want you to be more successful than themselves...
Thatguise 13y ago
These stories are everywhere, is like the one about the guy who bought a porsche for spare change because the seller was the owner's ex-wife and wanted to piss her ex off. You do know that was a coincidence right? or even a miracle given how well things ended up. Has the uber guy been a little pissed or in a bad mood the results could have been drastically different, and yet your blog-worthy suggestion is to take a leap of faith and see if it works. Who cares, we are telling unexperienced, unprepared and even untalented kids to quit school and launch a "startup", whatever that means now.
- davidu 13y ago
  That's actually not the point at all. The point is to take the risk. Sometimes you'll find the person in the bad mood, but sometimes, just sometimes, it works, and when it does, it works great. And you don't need to share w/ the world the 5 other people you tried it on who weren't feeling serendipitous that day. History is told by the victors, after all.
  - Thatguise 13y ago
    Right and when it does not which is going to be most of the time you end up ruining your reputation in the extremely tightly-knit gossipy startup community, and become ostracized for being a "bad culture fit" in short the only guy in the room who is neither high or a brown noser.
- XEKEP 13y ago
  It is not important how unlikely are the odds. What's important is to be prepared when the chance does present itself and that requires talent and years of training. So I think you misread the narrative, it's not about striking gold.
  - Thatguise 13y ago
    The narrative didn't even once elaborate on the qualifications of the designer, her story or the long path that brought her the experience to improve the app.
medell 13y ago
Great story. Uber got shutdown here in Vancouver last November, but I was curious what it looked like. To save you a few clicks: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/uber/id368677368?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/uber/id368677368?mt=8
tomasien 13y ago
Her use of the word "liminal" in Elle's profile he links to reminded me of the most culturally unifying thing I ever read - http://www2.fiu.edu/~ereserve/010010095-1.pdf http://www2.fiu.edu/~ereserve/010010095-1.pdf Amazing how societies all have this same period, whether it's college or 3 years in the woods. The rules are weirdly the same - "there's a time for everything, and it's college" translates to a random tribe in Africa almost literally.
axaxs 13y ago
Liquid confidence is not special. This was a case of good luck and little motivation.
jseliger 13y ago
<blockquote>The statement of the Shimura-Taniyama-Weil conjecture must have sounded crazy to its creators. . . . the idea that this was true. . . must have sounded totally outrageous at the time. This was a leap of faith, in the form of a question that [Taniyama] posed at the International Symposium on Algebraic Number Theory held in Tokyo in September 1955. I've always wondered: what did it take for him to come to believe that this wasn't crazy, but real? To have the courage to say it publicly? We'll never know. Unfortunately, not long after his great discovery, in November 1958, Taniyama committed suicide. He was only thirty-one. To add to the tragedy, shortly afterward the woman whom he was planning to marry also took her life, leaving the following note: <blockquote>We promised each other that no matter where we went, we would never be separated. Now that he is gone, I must go too in order to join him.</blockquote> . . . In his thoughtful essay about Tayniyama, Shimura made this striking comment: <blockquote>Though he was by no means a sloppy type, he was gifted with the special capability of making many mistakes, mostly in the right direction. I envied him for this, and tried in vain to imitate him, but found it quite difficult to make good mistakes. (94) </blockquote></blockquote> —Edward Frenkel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Love-Math-Heart-Hidden-Reality/dp/0465050743?ie=UTF8&tag=thstsst-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957">Love http://www.amazon.com/Love-Math-Heart-Hidden-Reality/dp/0465... and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality</a>, which is recommended. What mistakes have you made lately?
spodek 13y ago
Everybody so far is commenting on the woman who approached the CEO. Let's not forget the CEO, who committed and risked resources on a hunch or instinct or who-knows-what. If I had to pick one of the two to ask how they had the nerve to act and to learn from, I'd pick him. (Of course I'd prefer both and not to belittle her gumption and skills to back it up). - What did he see to suggest risking those resources? ... To create a team of outsiders to work on the core app? - How likely did he expect things to work out? - How did he explain the expenditure of flying the others in to the CFO or whomever? - Or did he make a unilateral decision without asking others? - Did he just get lucky? - Had he done things like this before and succeeded? Failed? - Was he worried about making waves in his organization? Did he? Plenty more questions pop up...
- tomasien 13y ago
  I like both people in this story a LOT
- jcampbell1 13y ago
  The thing that is most fascinating, is that she basically said, "I like your idea, but your execution sucks". That is the pinnacle of the most painful thing to hear, but the CEO took it in stride and made his product better. That is the lesson I am going to take away. Ideas matter, but if execution is the thing you can change, then embrace the people that tell you your execution sucks and have ideas.
  - klochner 13y ago
    I'm embarrassed that I even know this, but she used a standard pickup tactic[1,2], popularized by the book "the game". [1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neg http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neg [2] http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/05/negging-latest-dating-trend http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/05/negging-lat...
    - mindcrime 13y ago
      I can see the analogy, although I'm not convinced it holds up. But the flip-side is, and I think this is important to understand, a lot of the "techniques" used by PUAs aren't things they invented, but rather things they borrowed from material on salesmanship and persuasion. Robert Cialdini, for example, is heavily cited as an influence within the PUA community. So calling a "neg" a "pickup technique" might not even be accurate. I imagine the idea of "lower the value of a high-value target to penetrate their shield" probably predates the term PUA by quite some time.
hawkharris 13y ago
To me the most interesting aspect of this story isn't the inspirational "don't be afraid to try" message. That's a sentiment most people have heard, and I don't think this story puts a particularly new spin on it. The interesting bit, I think, is how the protagonist challenged the traditional relationship between employer and job seeker. Instead of pandering by praising Uber's design, she had the guts - possibly because of whiskey :) - to offer thoughtful criticism of the product. As someone who recently finished a tough job search, I found this concept very liberating. Following the traditional process - researching a company's best features, trying to say the right things in interviews, waiting for callbacks - can feel discouraging. It can be like a bad round of speed dating. Finding a creative, respectful way to point out a company's flaws is an innovative approach that, when done appropriately, can shift the ball back into the candidate's court.
sandeshkumar 13y ago
Uber, indeed!
tacoman 13y ago
Uber should also overhaul their website. I had to go to wikipedia to figure out what this company does.
ritchiea 13y ago
Great story. That's really the right way to get a new job, tell the CEO of a company exactly how you can help her/his company. And smart of the Uber CEO to listen to her. That said it really helps if you're already hanging around at a party with a CEO of a big, in the news, growing startup and thus have insider access to tell him exactly what you think after a few drinks.
- ericabiz 13y ago
  > That said it really helps if you're already hanging around at a party with a CEO of a big, in the news, growing startup and thus have insider access to tell him exactly what you think after a few drinks. Sigh. I know Travis personally. I met him years ago, before Uber was even a twinkle in his eye, and he was running his last company, Red Swoosh. There's no "insider" here. I graduated high school, turned 18, and moved to the Valley in 1999. I stayed there for the next 10 years. My parents are not technical and I'm from a small town in Indiana. I did not get a college degree and I did not go to a prestigious university. I knew no one when I moved there. Eventually, years later, as the startup community coalesced and we all recovered from the pit of despair that was 2001-2002 in the Valley, people started having parties. I went to socialize. I met many of the "heavy hitters" you see today. And I built a successful tech company with many of them as customers. Yeah, the articles love to talk about Stanford grads and whatnot. Maybe they had it easier than me. I don't know. What I do know is I came out there with nothing but guts and a car (that literally exploded on me a year later) and...most importantly...no belief that I couldn't succeed or that I wouldn't make it. It does take guts to pack your shit and sleep on the floor for a while, but eventually it does pay off. I'm running my second successful tech company now, this time in Austin, where again I know most of the folks in the startup community. Not because I'm some sort of "insider", but just because I went out there and met everyone, and I asked them for advice. There's nothing stopping you, or anyone else reading this, from doing the same. Can't afford a ticket to the Valley, or don't want to deal with immigration laws? Find a booming startup metropolis somewhere else and get to know the people there. Startups are global now and it's a beautiful thing. But don't buy into the negative media hype.
  - ritchiea 13y ago
pkulak 13y ago
I hate this self empowerment bullshit. Do people have any idea what this sounds like to people with actual, real problems? Your life can't be solved by positive thinking and being impulsive. In fact, I can make a very good case that that kind of attitude will create far more problems than it solves. Hell, I'm sure I could come up with _two_ anecdotes, which is already twice the evidence given by this blog post.
- jonathanjaeger 13y ago
  They've done studies that show if you force yourself to smile, even if you're in a bad mood, it'll make you happier. Even if it's forced, it still helps. This same idea can be applied to self-empowerment and it works for people. Just because it's cheesy doesn't mean it doesn't work. I mean, even knowing you're taking a placebo can still lead to positive outcomes.
  - wpietri 13y ago
    One of the related studies I like comes from Richard Wiseman. Basically, lucky is somewhere between an attitude and a skill: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-a... I agree with pkulak that a lot of self-empowerment stuff is bullshit. And some of it is dangerous bullshit. But a lot of it is effective bullshit because it works to counter the ineffective bullshit that lives in our heads. It's crazy. But, then, we're made out of meat. The whole thing's crazy.
  - pkulak 13y ago
    Sounds like a pretty superficial happy to me. And it doesn't actually solve any of the problems that make you sad. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a really good book about this kind of thing: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SKDGQ0 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SKDGQ0
  - delluminatus 13y ago
    OK, smiling is a behavior that is typically evocative of happiness, and it turns out that smiling actually induces a small level of happiness even if you weren't happy before. I follow you so far. Therefore, you can... act self-empowered, which can make you feel self-empowered, even if you're not actually self-empowered? You're starting to lose me here. How are these ideas related at all? edit: I see; you mean that if people BELIEVE that acting as though they are successful will help them become successful, then it actually might help them become successful as their expectations influence their actions. Fake it 'till you make it.
dm8 13y ago
I think it is about the decisiveness of a founder. It's not about asking her to come at 9. It's about having a team ready by Monday and flying people from out of town. Although, I appreciate that the designer took his offer seriously. More importantly, it's the guts of a founder in this case that made it happen.
useraccount 13y ago
This is vapid as hell.
applecore 13y ago
What did the Uber app look like, before and after?
greendata 13y ago
Great story. Uber sounds like a wonderful place to work at. To those commenting that this is a BS self-empowerment article, I disagree. The founder probably knew that these design issues were a problem. A competent designer gave a criticism and a solution. She was offered a job if she could fix the issues. Seems like a story of hard work by a good designer and team who displayed a dedication to their craft. Show up, work hard, and don't be afraid to pitch your ideas you believe in.
stephenaturner 13y ago
Nice. I think the CEO already knew his app sucked, so she didn't have to convince him of that, but obviously she convinced him she was the best person to fix it, and that's great.
charlieirish 13y ago
Most people won't and most people don't [1] Is this lack of willpower or the lack of challenging the status quo innate or learned? Is it possible to go from somebody who doesn't to somebody who does? All the great doers that I have ever met don't follow the same routines. They don't have a magic formula that will work for you. The echo chamber of self-help books works for some people because it gives them the kick they need. For others they 'feel' better but they don't actually change their behaviour. What seems to work is to understand yourself and to understand when you are productive or creative. Then, encourage this time and cultivate it so that it becomes a regular part of your routine. [1] http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/people-dont/ http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/people-dont/
mipapage 13y ago
His working out at Gym Jones is showing thru in this post! Very Mark Twight-ish.

161 points by imd23 13y ago

imd23 13y ago

I couldn't feel more identified. I've done similar things sometimes (not playing at that level but, similar in the end) and what I felt was a big discomfort and a really huge passion for something. You want to defend your values. These two together creates a willingness to change the status quo and make something better can move mountains. At the same time I can say this seconds you are terribly fragile. Not even courage is needed. That's why it's so difficult to explain, it's something you feel inside and need to get out.

md224 13y ago

I've been kind of struggling lately with this sort of inspirational attitude. It seems like a good attitude, but it also comes with this hidden assumption: if you try hard and keep at it, there's a good chance you'll succeed. Is this actually true? I mean I want it to be true. I'd like to live in a world where it's true. But I don't actually have any hard evidence besides the testimonials of people who have found success, and I'm not sure if it's survivorship bias or an accurate picture of how one can become successful. My theory is that chances of success are incredibly variable, and trying hard and putting yourself out there will increase that chance, but I can't figure out a ballpark for the baseline. Is it even possible to crunch the numbers on something like this? I feel like we'll never know. Knowing you gave it a shot is the important part, I suppose.

Thatguise 13y ago
It is, it has been done, statistically when it comes to financial success America is fast becoming one of the countries where its most unlikely to go from rags to riches. Its not a lie, its big data crunching the numbers that are out there, and those numbers say if you are poor you are most likely going to end poor, or perhaps dirt poor.
- altr3g0 13y ago
  Nothing against you or the person who did that research, but: fuck statistics. Eventually one gets to defy them!
  - Thatguise 13y ago
    Why don't you go back to youtube comments, or better yet the first grade?
  - delluminatus 13y ago
    Seriously? Fuck statistics?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - Thatguise 13y ago
    Yeah my mistake I shouldn't have used "rags to riches" since no country has ever had as a statistical point. No, what I meant which is what you are talking about is "upward mobility" and that is exactly what is going down in America: the plausibility of reaching a higher economical status than the one you were born in to, not necessarily becoming a millionaire. That was the American Dream, and right now the average American has the same chances of upward mobility than the average citizen of a third world country.
WalterBright 13y ago
The failure rate for those who don't try is 100%.
- md224 13y ago
  But what if the failure rate for those who do try is 99%? Trying isn't always zero-risk... I wonder if ambition could be subject to a cost/benefit analysis, haha. At some point I suppose you just have to let go of the numbers.
  - winstonian 13y ago
    I once heard the phrase, "Don't be a pussy and quit fucking around". It has become a phrase I live by.
  - rosser 13y ago
    What's the cost/benefit breakdown of not taking the risk?
    - Joeboy 13y ago
      I don't really understand how we've ended up at this line of argument. There is no significant risk to talking shit at a bar. Other than the fact that being in the bar in the first place is generally a good way to avoid opportunities.
  - WalterBright 13y ago
    If you are looking for reasons to not try, you're going to find an endless supply of them. I've done a lot of things that people relentlessly told me I had no chance of accomplishing.
    - delluminatus 13y ago
      You are either... 1. Extraordinary, and able to achieve what others cannot. 2. Lucky, and by chance successful in an area where success is hard to find. 3. Being told that you have no chance of accomplishing things that are actually not very hard. 4. A living example of how anybody can do that which they set their mind to. If you're 1, then other people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you're 2, then people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you're 3, then people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you think you're 4, then you're either 1, 2, or 3, and just don't realize it yet.
DanielRibeiro 13y ago
Steve Jobs started a personal story with [1]: "Most people don't get those experiences because they never ask..." And he ends with "you gotta be willing to fail ... if you are afraid of failing, you won't get very far" Which seems to be a surprisingly common theme among successful people: Mark Suster has a famous mantra: "You don't ask, you don't get"[2] Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, told a story of how he got Steve Balmer advise him once[3] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI [2] http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/15/the-one-word-that-shouldnt-exist-in-an-entrepreneurs-vocabulary/ http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/15/the-one-word-t... [3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqm9NXug6WE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqm9NXug6WE
hayksaakian 13y ago
Trying is a way to create and execute on opportunities. You could think about it as creating your own luck. The only problem is that at the end of the day it's still luck.
sodafountan 13y ago
Of course it's true. I'm a terrible bowler, I could roll the ball in the gutter a million fucking times but if I keep TRYING to get a strike, EVENTUALLY i'll get one. That's different from just rolling the ball down the lane. If I don't change something up and learn from my mistakes and learn how to angle the ball and learn how much force to give it then i'll keep rolling the ball in the gutter, sure i can shrug to my friends and tell them I "tried" but i'd know deep down that I didn't... Don't fall into the fallacy of staying in your comfort zone and trying just for the sake of trying.. You'll never grow. You have to be willing to challenge yourself and do things just a little different next time to really become better and finally get that strike. And when all is said and done you'll probably be a pretty good bowler.. then you can blog about it.
neovi 13y ago
I've been thinking about this lately, too. What I find weird is all that inspiration/motivation about hard work and going after your dreams is very big in MLM businesses yet ~16million people account for ~$32billion in annual sales (divided equally: $2,000/person) [1]. I don't have any specific source on startups, but the thought that working as hard as you can will make your dreams come through seems prevalent, too. My thinking (and I'm really wanting a conversation over this because it's an interesting topic) is that not only should one work hard, but make smart moves. Using startups as an example, a person could hack away 100hrs/week on a social network for pets while another person could be putting in 20hrs/week on a monetization tool for Instagram. The former is putting in more hours, but the latter has a higher chance (if by only a tiny percent) simply because it's in a position to 1. be acquired and 2. solve the problem of Instagram not having a model. So they're both putting in work, assuming good attitude, and taking the chance as OP's point was. Yet it seems the defining factor is where all that energy is directed to. [1] http://www.dsa.org/research/industry-statistics/ http://www.dsa.org/research/industry-statistics/
saturdayplace 13y ago
I don't think you're going to get the numbers you're after, and hopefully you can live with having given an honest effort if you fail. The truth is, having this kind of attitude, and doing the work that comes along with it, is necessary but generally insufficient for success. Meaning, you can get there with with work + (some Other Factors), but you absolutely won't get there without it. Which is why the stories you hear about successful people all include the "hard work paid off" bit. Other Factors can include but are not limited to: having the right contacts, being in the right place at the right time, having a unique insight into the market, etc. Looking at a list like that might be dispiriting because the items all appear to be frustratingly correlated with random chance. And that's partly true. But what is also true, is that doing certain kinds of work often has the interesting side-effect of raising your chances for bumping into one of those other factors. Which is what you were saying above. For example, working hard in, and paying attention to business in a given industry for a while might a) Give you insight into how something might be done better, and b) introduce you to people working in that industry who could help you out by b1) teaching you more about it, b2) directing you to others who can, b3) becoming a collaborator with you, or b4) pointing you to capital resources interested in solving relevant problems. I mean, yeah in the end, in business you're likely to fail. Most businesses fail. Most people who have the right attitude and do the requisite work fail. But you can't get to the top of the mountain without hiking.
larrys 13y ago
"there's a good chance you'll succeed. Is this actually true?" Depends on what you mean by "good chance" obviously. And "succeed". "accurate picture of how one can become successful." I looked at your website from your profile. Being successful at the "creative" things you are good at would be much more difficult than some of the other less creative things you have listed. There are (from my observation and I believe this is common knowledge) many people who have really good creative skills in music, art, acting etc and no where near enough opportunities for those people to make a good career out of it. In that case the hustle is probably even more important than the skill level (not that that's not important). But even with hustle it can be random. And there are many people hustling to get ahead. You aren't competing with people to get a job as a dental hygienist who really isn't super into their job, right? Some of your competitors are really totally over the top in their commitment to doing what you want to do. They aren't phoning it in or anything. Like with dating or landing a job you only have to be right one time (well assuming you find "the right one"). Not like selling where you have to find a certain number of sales per time period. So you have to assess how much time and effort it takes to get a sale and extrapolate.
Xixi 13y ago
When you hear that an entrepreneur should not be afraid of failure, I think you are misunderstanding it. It doesn't mean that failure is unlikely, it means that failure is not a big deal. Corollary: whatever bold move you want to try, make sure that failing is not going to be a problem, especially a financial one. Note that in this context it is assumed that embarrassing yourself is most definitely not a big deal, which is way easier to say than to act upon. In the story linked, what was the worst thing that could happen to this lady? The CEO taking the remark the wrong way and being pissed? Or laughing at her, maybe? Who cares? You quit your job and start a company? Depending on the kind of company, your chance of success will vary considerably. After you failed, you just get a new job/go back to your previous job and that's it. You lost a couple months of incomes, some savings, and you can laugh at your epic failure with your friends. The dirty secret is that your friends will probably love you more after you failed, because truth being told, they are unlikely to want you to be more successful than themselves...

Thatguise 13y ago

These stories are everywhere, is like the one about the guy who bought a porsche for spare change because the seller was the owner's ex-wife and wanted to piss her ex off. You do know that was a coincidence right? or even a miracle given how well things ended up. Has the uber guy been a little pissed or in a bad mood the results could have been drastically different, and yet your blog-worthy suggestion is to take a leap of faith and see if it works. Who cares, we are telling unexperienced, unprepared and even untalented kids to quit school and launch a "startup", whatever that means now.

davidu 13y ago
That's actually not the point at all. The point is to take the risk. Sometimes you'll find the person in the bad mood, but sometimes, just sometimes, it works, and when it does, it works great. And you don't need to share w/ the world the 5 other people you tried it on who weren't feeling serendipitous that day. History is told by the victors, after all.
- Thatguise 13y ago
  Right and when it does not which is going to be most of the time you end up ruining your reputation in the extremely tightly-knit gossipy startup community, and become ostracized for being a "bad culture fit" in short the only guy in the room who is neither high or a brown noser.
XEKEP 13y ago
It is not important how unlikely are the odds. What's important is to be prepared when the chance does present itself and that requires talent and years of training. So I think you misread the narrative, it's not about striking gold.
- Thatguise 13y ago
  The narrative didn't even once elaborate on the qualifications of the designer, her story or the long path that brought her the experience to improve the app.

medell 13y ago

Great story. Uber got shutdown here in Vancouver last November, but I was curious what it looked like. To save you a few clicks: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/uber/id368677368?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/uber/id368677368?mt=8

tomasien 13y ago

Her use of the word "liminal" in Elle's profile he links to reminded me of the most culturally unifying thing I ever read - http://www2.fiu.edu/~ereserve/010010095-1.pdf http://www2.fiu.edu/~ereserve/010010095-1.pdf Amazing how societies all have this same period, whether it's college or 3 years in the woods. The rules are weirdly the same - "there's a time for everything, and it's college" translates to a random tribe in Africa almost literally.

axaxs 13y ago

Liquid confidence is not special. This was a case of good luck and little motivation.

jseliger 13y ago

<blockquote>The statement of the Shimura-Taniyama-Weil conjecture must have sounded crazy to its creators. . . . the idea that this was true. . . must have sounded totally outrageous at the time. This was a leap of faith, in the form of a question that [Taniyama] posed at the International Symposium on Algebraic Number Theory held in Tokyo in September 1955. I've always wondered: what did it take for him to come to believe that this wasn't crazy, but real? To have the courage to say it publicly? We'll never know. Unfortunately, not long after his great discovery, in November 1958, Taniyama committed suicide. He was only thirty-one. To add to the tragedy, shortly afterward the woman whom he was planning to marry also took her life, leaving the following note: <blockquote>We promised each other that no matter where we went, we would never be separated. Now that he is gone, I must go too in order to join him.</blockquote> . . . In his thoughtful essay about Tayniyama, Shimura made this striking comment: <blockquote>Though he was by no means a sloppy type, he was gifted with the special capability of making many mistakes, mostly in the right direction. I envied him for this, and tried in vain to imitate him, but found it quite difficult to make good mistakes. (94) </blockquote></blockquote> —Edward Frenkel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Love-Math-Heart-Hidden-Reality/dp/0465050743?ie=UTF8&tag=thstsst-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957">Love http://www.amazon.com/Love-Math-Heart-Hidden-Reality/dp/0465... and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality</a>, which is recommended. What mistakes have you made lately?

spodek 13y ago

Everybody so far is commenting on the woman who approached the CEO. Let's not forget the CEO, who committed and risked resources on a hunch or instinct or who-knows-what. If I had to pick one of the two to ask how they had the nerve to act and to learn from, I'd pick him. (Of course I'd prefer both and not to belittle her gumption and skills to back it up). - What did he see to suggest risking those resources? ... To create a team of outsiders to work on the core app? - How likely did he expect things to work out? - How did he explain the expenditure of flying the others in to the CFO or whomever? - Or did he make a unilateral decision without asking others? - Did he just get lucky? - Had he done things like this before and succeeded? Failed? - Was he worried about making waves in his organization? Did he? Plenty more questions pop up...

tomasien 13y ago
I like both people in this story a LOT
jcampbell1 13y ago
The thing that is most fascinating, is that she basically said, "I like your idea, but your execution sucks". That is the pinnacle of the most painful thing to hear, but the CEO took it in stride and made his product better. That is the lesson I am going to take away. Ideas matter, but if execution is the thing you can change, then embrace the people that tell you your execution sucks and have ideas.
- klochner 13y ago
  I'm embarrassed that I even know this, but she used a standard pickup tactic[1,2], popularized by the book "the game". [1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neg http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neg [2] http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/05/negging-latest-dating-trend http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/05/negging-lat...
  - mindcrime 13y ago
    I can see the analogy, although I'm not convinced it holds up. But the flip-side is, and I think this is important to understand, a lot of the "techniques" used by PUAs aren't things they invented, but rather things they borrowed from material on salesmanship and persuasion. Robert Cialdini, for example, is heavily cited as an influence within the PUA community. So calling a "neg" a "pickup technique" might not even be accurate. I imagine the idea of "lower the value of a high-value target to penetrate their shield" probably predates the term PUA by quite some time.

hawkharris 13y ago

To me the most interesting aspect of this story isn't the inspirational "don't be afraid to try" message. That's a sentiment most people have heard, and I don't think this story puts a particularly new spin on it. The interesting bit, I think, is how the protagonist challenged the traditional relationship between employer and job seeker. Instead of pandering by praising Uber's design, she had the guts - possibly because of whiskey :) - to offer thoughtful criticism of the product. As someone who recently finished a tough job search, I found this concept very liberating. Following the traditional process - researching a company's best features, trying to say the right things in interviews, waiting for callbacks - can feel discouraging. It can be like a bad round of speed dating. Finding a creative, respectful way to point out a company's flaws is an innovative approach that, when done appropriately, can shift the ball back into the candidate's court.

sandeshkumar 13y ago

Uber, indeed!

tacoman 13y ago

Uber should also overhaul their website. I had to go to wikipedia to figure out what this company does.

ritchiea 13y ago

Great story. That's really the right way to get a new job, tell the CEO of a company exactly how you can help her/his company. And smart of the Uber CEO to listen to her. That said it really helps if you're already hanging around at a party with a CEO of a big, in the news, growing startup and thus have insider access to tell him exactly what you think after a few drinks.

ericabiz 13y ago
> That said it really helps if you're already hanging around at a party with a CEO of a big, in the news, growing startup and thus have insider access to tell him exactly what you think after a few drinks. Sigh. I know Travis personally. I met him years ago, before Uber was even a twinkle in his eye, and he was running his last company, Red Swoosh. There's no "insider" here. I graduated high school, turned 18, and moved to the Valley in 1999. I stayed there for the next 10 years. My parents are not technical and I'm from a small town in Indiana. I did not get a college degree and I did not go to a prestigious university. I knew no one when I moved there. Eventually, years later, as the startup community coalesced and we all recovered from the pit of despair that was 2001-2002 in the Valley, people started having parties. I went to socialize. I met many of the "heavy hitters" you see today. And I built a successful tech company with many of them as customers. Yeah, the articles love to talk about Stanford grads and whatnot. Maybe they had it easier than me. I don't know. What I do know is I came out there with nothing but guts and a car (that literally exploded on me a year later) and...most importantly...no belief that I couldn't succeed or that I wouldn't make it. It does take guts to pack your shit and sleep on the floor for a while, but eventually it does pay off. I'm running my second successful tech company now, this time in Austin, where again I know most of the folks in the startup community. Not because I'm some sort of "insider", but just because I went out there and met everyone, and I asked them for advice. There's nothing stopping you, or anyone else reading this, from doing the same. Can't afford a ticket to the Valley, or don't want to deal with immigration laws? Find a booming startup metropolis somewhere else and get to know the people there. Startups are global now and it's a beautiful thing. But don't buy into the negative media hype.
- ritchiea 13y ago

pkulak 13y ago

I hate this self empowerment bullshit. Do people have any idea what this sounds like to people with actual, real problems? Your life can't be solved by positive thinking and being impulsive. In fact, I can make a very good case that that kind of attitude will create far more problems than it solves. Hell, I'm sure I could come up with _two_ anecdotes, which is already twice the evidence given by this blog post.

jonathanjaeger 13y ago
They've done studies that show if you force yourself to smile, even if you're in a bad mood, it'll make you happier. Even if it's forced, it still helps. This same idea can be applied to self-empowerment and it works for people. Just because it's cheesy doesn't mean it doesn't work. I mean, even knowing you're taking a placebo can still lead to positive outcomes.
- wpietri 13y ago
  One of the related studies I like comes from Richard Wiseman. Basically, lucky is somewhere between an attitude and a skill: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-a... I agree with pkulak that a lot of self-empowerment stuff is bullshit. And some of it is dangerous bullshit. But a lot of it is effective bullshit because it works to counter the ineffective bullshit that lives in our heads. It's crazy. But, then, we're made out of meat. The whole thing's crazy.
- pkulak 13y ago
  Sounds like a pretty superficial happy to me. And it doesn't actually solve any of the problems that make you sad. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a really good book about this kind of thing: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SKDGQ0 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SKDGQ0
- delluminatus 13y ago
  OK, smiling is a behavior that is typically evocative of happiness, and it turns out that smiling actually induces a small level of happiness even if you weren't happy before. I follow you so far. Therefore, you can... act self-empowered, which can make you feel self-empowered, even if you're not actually self-empowered? You're starting to lose me here. How are these ideas related at all? edit: I see; you mean that if people BELIEVE that acting as though they are successful will help them become successful, then it actually might help them become successful as their expectations influence their actions. Fake it 'till you make it.

dm8 13y ago

I think it is about the decisiveness of a founder. It's not about asking her to come at 9. It's about having a team ready by Monday and flying people from out of town. Although, I appreciate that the designer took his offer seriously. More importantly, it's the guts of a founder in this case that made it happen.

useraccount 13y ago

This is vapid as hell.

applecore 13y ago

What did the Uber app look like, before and after?

greendata 13y ago

Great story. Uber sounds like a wonderful place to work at. To those commenting that this is a BS self-empowerment article, I disagree. The founder probably knew that these design issues were a problem. A competent designer gave a criticism and a solution. She was offered a job if she could fix the issues. Seems like a story of hard work by a good designer and team who displayed a dedication to their craft. Show up, work hard, and don't be afraid to pitch your ideas you believe in.

stephenaturner 13y ago

Nice. I think the CEO already knew his app sucked, so she didn't have to convince him of that, but obviously she convinced him she was the best person to fix it, and that's great.

charlieirish 13y ago

Most people won't and most people don't [1] Is this lack of willpower or the lack of challenging the status quo innate or learned? Is it possible to go from somebody who doesn't to somebody who does? All the great doers that I have ever met don't follow the same routines. They don't have a magic formula that will work for you. The echo chamber of self-help books works for some people because it gives them the kick they need. For others they 'feel' better but they don't actually change their behaviour. What seems to work is to understand yourself and to understand when you are productive or creative. Then, encourage this time and cultivate it so that it becomes a regular part of your routine. [1] http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/people-dont/ http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/people-dont/

mipapage 13y ago

His working out at Gym Jones is showing thru in this post! Very Mark Twight-ish.