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How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

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Re: How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

#11
post #9

confidence is for marketing guys you should make important decisions on the rational level, not the emotional level. You should weigh the risks and rewards in a rational manner, rather than running with what you feel. Feelings can be quite mercurial, and if you quit after you have a depressing weekend, or (sometimes worse) get in over your head and charge up lots of personal debit because you 'feel good' you can get…

Unless I misunderstand your use of 'confidence', that's exactly wrong.

Confidence is necessary for anyone who wishes to achieve anything extraordinary. It'll come in handy when you're working on a dinky little idea that no one else understands or respects. It'll come in handy when you're quitting your day job, driving a crummier car than your neighbors, and working late into the evening for $0/hr. It'll come in handy when you're asking investors for money. Need I go on?

If you make important decisions solely on a rational level, how in the name of all that is holy could you ever start a company? What if your rational decisions never lead you to a 'positive expected return'?

Re: How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

#12
post #9

confidence is for marketing guys you should make important decisions on the rational level, not the emotional level. You should weigh the risks and rewards in a rational manner, rather than running with what you feel. Feelings can be quite mercurial, and if you quit after you have a depressing weekend, or (sometimes worse) get in over your head and charge up lots of personal debit because you 'feel good' you can get…

Unless I misunderstand your use of 'confidence', that's exactly wrong. Confidence is necessary for anyone who wishes to achieve anything extraordinary. It'll come in handy when you're working on a dinky little idea that no one else understands or respects. It'll come in handy when you're quitting your day job, driving a crummier car than your neighbors, and working late into the evening for $0/hr. It'll come in handy…

One can commit to a plan while recognizing that it has a relatively small chance of success. The only other way to get past the startup phase of the business is to actively conceal the truth from yourself. To aim for "confidence"

Re: How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

#13
post #9

confidence is for marketing guys you should make important decisions on the rational level, not the emotional level. You should weigh the risks and rewards in a rational manner, rather than running with what you feel. Feelings can be quite mercurial, and if you quit after you have a depressing weekend, or (sometimes worse) get in over your head and charge up lots of personal debit because you 'feel good' you can get…

Unless I misunderstand your use of 'confidence', that's exactly wrong. Confidence is necessary for anyone who wishes to achieve anything extraordinary. It'll come in handy when you're working on a dinky little idea that no one else understands or respects. It'll come in handy when you're quitting your day job, driving a crummier car than your neighbors, and working late into the evening for $0/hr. It'll come in handy…

are you trying to say that starting a company is an irrational act?

Re: How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

#15
post #4

I got my initial confidence through spectacular ignorance of the difficulties involved. Confidence grows as problems are solved.

That describes how I got my start in music. I wonder if there's parallels between child prodigies in music and in coding? I wonder if the labor of child prodigies might be some kind of untapped resource? (Early to mid teens. Maybe there's some black hat hackers out there like that?) Perhaps best if this remains speculation forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_method

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20050614-000002....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Polg%C3%A1r

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