4 ms·

10 years of entrepreneurship

105 points by epi0Bauqu 17y ago

TrevorJ 17y ago
I found the last paragraph to be especially thought-provoking. He talks about the trap of talking about the work you plan to do at the expense of actually doing it, which is something I find is easy to fall into.
jeffspost 17y ago
I agree. Excellent final paragraph.
ecot 17y ago
Good advice. It's easy to get caught up in a comparison with the achievements of others, and to say, "why can't I be like them, why couldn't I have seen that opportunity?" In doing so you make the whole thing competitive - in your mind. The truth is that you aren't them and you probably weren't motivated to try what they did at the time they did it. So why regret it now?
- nsoonhui 17y ago
  Agree. But let me just add that even if you bothered to try what they did, they could still fail and you could still succeed. Not because of why, but because you were less lucky than them.
jlees 17y ago
Heh, it's also 10 years since I first got into entrepreneurship and realised that running a company was a) fun and b) a decent way to spend one's life. The journey since then has detoured through university, but I was always freelancing on the side. Now I'm running a company "for real" and loving it.
- quizbiz 17y ago
  I would love to hear further detail about the balance between freelancing, college, and eventually running my own "real" company. That seems to be the path I'm headed towards.
  - jlees 17y ago
    It's just been a case of prioritising, really. Running several websites from student societies' to independent stuff (looking back, why on earth didn't I monetise any of it?) meant people knew I did websites, which led to being paid for doing one-off stuff. I then spent summers and holidays doing more complex jobs, including rentacoder type work. Worked for local startups and big corporations in summer vacations (sometimes freelancing in my spare time). Broke free of academia, did a bit more freelancing, then realised I had the freedom at last (no academic terms round the corner) to start up rather than do odd jobs for the rest of my life. You'll know when the time is right for that. Good luck! :)
aditya 17y ago
Unfortunately, it is much more tempting and easier looking to jump on a trend in the hopes of becoming rich and famous than to put your head down and execute non-stop for years, especially without any hope in sight. PS. How do you get to be on these BusinessWeek and Inc. Awesome Person of the Year lists anyway? Do you go hound them or is it just a side-effect of all the publicity your startup is getting?
udekaf 17y ago
The advice I got from the article: making something valuable to your customers instead of doing something hot.

105 points by epi0Bauqu 17y ago

I found the last paragraph to be especially thought-provoking. He talks about the trap of talking about the work you plan to do at the expense of actually doing it, which is something I find is easy to fall into.

jeffspost 17y ago

I agree. Excellent final paragraph.

ecot 17y ago

Good advice. It's easy to get caught up in a comparison with the achievements of others, and to say, "why can't I be like them, why couldn't I have seen that opportunity?" In doing so you make the whole thing competitive - in your mind. The truth is that you aren't them and you probably weren't motivated to try what they did at the time they did it. So why regret it now?

nsoonhui 17y ago
Agree. But let me just add that even if you bothered to try what they did, they could still fail and you could still succeed. Not because of why, but because you were less lucky than them.

jlees 17y ago

Heh, it's also 10 years since I first got into entrepreneurship and realised that running a company was a) fun and b) a decent way to spend one's life. The journey since then has detoured through university, but I was always freelancing on the side. Now I'm running a company "for real" and loving it.

quizbiz 17y ago
I would love to hear further detail about the balance between freelancing, college, and eventually running my own "real" company. That seems to be the path I'm headed towards.
- jlees 17y ago
  It's just been a case of prioritising, really. Running several websites from student societies' to independent stuff (looking back, why on earth didn't I monetise any of it?) meant people knew I did websites, which led to being paid for doing one-off stuff. I then spent summers and holidays doing more complex jobs, including rentacoder type work. Worked for local startups and big corporations in summer vacations (sometimes freelancing in my spare time). Broke free of academia, did a bit more freelancing, then realised I had the freedom at last (no academic terms round the corner) to start up rather than do odd jobs for the rest of my life. You'll know when the time is right for that. Good luck! :)

aditya 17y ago

Unfortunately, it is much more tempting and easier looking to jump on a trend in the hopes of becoming rich and famous than to put your head down and execute non-stop for years, especially without any hope in sight. PS. How do you get to be on these BusinessWeek and Inc. Awesome Person of the Year lists anyway? Do you go hound them or is it just a side-effect of all the publicity your startup is getting?

udekaf 17y ago

The advice I got from the article: making something valuable to your customers instead of doing something hot.