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Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

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121–130 of 317 posts

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#121
post #119

I started selling online, total sales so far over $300k. Multiple sources, some retail, some wholesale. What I've learned: 1. Not all rules matter. A large part of my business is stretching certain rules, either from the marketplace, or from the source (e.g. a store that doesn't allow resale). That said, you can't get away with breaking rules unless you have a very good understanding of why the rule exists, who's mot…

You should blog about this.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#122
post #114
post #93

I quit my job to spend more time with my family. This was very difficult for me. I love working, but I'd been doing startups for a little more than a decade, and startups require lots of attention. When I had my first child 2 years ago, I thought I could do both. I was wrong. My family and I moved to the wife's home country where it is very cheap and I'm spending 6 months just being "dad." In my downtime, I'm working…

Thinking about doing the same myself. I've realized I am just not happy in this job with my current company. Was it difficult to work on the side products without a set schedule like a full time job provides?

There was about a week of total chaos, but once I got my home office setup, it was like I was back on the saddle.

Having a kid also provides a set schedule - nap time, play time, etc. Those typically happen at the same time every day.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#123
post #3

After years of R&D, heartache, and rough decisions --- I finally turned my hardware company ( http://pavlok.com ) profitable! We make technology to break bad habits, wake up earlier, and reduce cravings. I decided to try to build a hardware company without raising VC --- which is probably one of the hardest decisions you can make. And required about 30 people to make a reality. But now that we have finally got our ma…

Awesome idea and the website looks great too! Congratulations for bootstrapping a 30 man team!

Does Pavlok have any other automated detection capacities other than wrist to mouth? You might consider making a video on how that works and how to temporarily disable it when eating: if that's the only "magic" feature, I for one would definitely want to see it in action before committing. If you have more magic, I think those features could use more exposure

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#126
post #119

I started selling online, total sales so far over $300k. Multiple sources, some retail, some wholesale. What I've learned: 1. Not all rules matter. A large part of my business is stretching certain rules, either from the marketplace, or from the source (e.g. a store that doesn't allow resale). That said, you can't get away with breaking rules unless you have a very good understanding of why the rule exists, who's mot…

You should blog about this.

I agree, but see #4

A lot of the people I follow in the industry have blogs and alternate income streams outside Amazon/eBay. (Paid lists, software, coaching, paid groups, etc.) Definitely something I want to do but I need to get my business onto maintenance mode first and definitely not happening anytime soon.

My short term goal is consistently 100k/sales a month, and my long term (6-12 months) goal is 250-500k/month.

Feel free to ask me anything here, though.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#127
post #88

I finally admitted that it was time to start back on antidepressants, and also discovered propranolol (anti-anxiety med); it's changed my life in the most dramatic ways I can imagine. As of today I weigh 319 lbs -- from a peak of over 400 -- and just a hair over half way to my goal of being at 240 lbs. This is the biggest change I've ever made in my life, and I couldn't be prouder to have come this far.

That's awesome progress. I would strongly recommend trying a lifting program like strong lifts 5x5. You can start from home & get familiar with the movements you will need to learn with this: http://goo.gl/HnViBp (get the 20lb one) After you're comfortable you'll need to go to a gym where you have access to a squat rack and a bench press.

Strength is something everyone should have. The best way to build it is with bodyweight exercises (push up, squat, pull up, etc) and barbell training (see SL)... with this you can look forward to more than just a declining number on the scale.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#128

When I was a little kid, I rented out Apollo 13 almost religiously. Kept watching it, admired the guys in mission control (and the astronauts too, of course). A little later, in April, I sat in mission control and helped launch a spaceship to the ISS. Along the way, I realized: Engineering in the real world is maybe 30% calculations and typical "sciency" work, the other 70% is documentation and communicating to peopl…

>Engineering in the real world is maybe 30% calculations and typical "sciency" work, the other 70% is documentation and communicating to people.

>Being smart isn't enough sometimes

Congratulations. You've learned two things that some people go their entire lives without understanding.

And I make no hyperbole. Erik Naggum didn't learn this, and he's far from the only one.

It's really something that we should put a greater effort into teaching...

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#129
post #6

It was an accomplishment for me but then it became a frustration. I always hated mathematics but I always loved programming, making appls but cool things like algorithms design, data structures are the base of real cool things e.g. programming languages, RDBMS, artificial intelligence, etc. are all mathematics So I enrolled to Mathematics on my local university just to see how it was and I fell in love, I never saw s…

if you have disposable income, see if you can get private tutoring. An hour of one on one time can be invaluable.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#130

I landed my dream job 20 years after I decided what and where I wanted. It took me a lot of time. Battling low self-esteem, giving it up for a while, following the wrong path, surviving after being fired for the first and only time. I learned perseverance. Once I set my mind on it and worked around distractions, people and my own mind, I got what I truly wanted and I'm loving and learning every single day.

Thats great !! Congrats....can u share more ?
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