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I am done. I give up

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Re: I am done. I give up

#91

Post by randmeerkat »

jacquesm wrote: post #54
seydor wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What rate is the cutoff at which people give up entrepreneurship altogether? I wonder how big has the opportunity cost of monopolies been in the past decade

That depends on the person, really. When you are younger or have rich parents you can afford yourself larger risks and that in turn has a positive effect on your chances of success. When you get older and have more responsibilities unless you have a prior success you tend to become more risk averse and so less willing to start new companies and/or make the kind of decisions that would lead to either success or comple…

> But most successful entrepreneurs I know started their first successful company in their 20's or 30's, rarely 40's.

“Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45”

https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes...

Discussion on HN here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409

Re: I am done. I give up

#92

Post by themitigating »

vineyardmike wrote: post #75
jlangenauer wrote: post #5

Why do "indiehackers" want attention from and create products for other "indiehackers"? As a group they seem the people with the least amount of money to spend on products, and are some of the most cheapskate people on the planet. Here's some advice: if you want to make money selling a software product, sell to people who are able and willing to spend money on it.

> Why do "indiehackers" want attention from and create products for other "indiehackers"? They’re influencers. That’s why people want their attention. I think it kinda has the look of a cool lifestyle from the outside (to some). They’re digital nomads and they travel to cool places and meeting cool people and tweeting big graphs that go up and to the right. They disavow lots of possessions (again a nomad) while profe…

I thought digital nomads were mostly remote workers who just wanted to travel.

What is an indie business?

Re: I am done. I give up

#93

Post by matwood »

chaosbolt wrote: post #58

>3 x failed attempts => spending time institutionalized >anyone can do it with the right mindset Those are contradictory, I would guess the right mindset is one where failure doesn't destroy you to the point you get institutionalized. Here is my stupid advice (won't work, it's a case of someone who knows less giving advice to someone who knows more, I have never started a company or anything, but as Gandalf said "Why…

> but it's a light way to learn to accept failure

Everyone should do sales at some point to learn about failure, and build a thicker skin. Sales is about getting told no over and over, not taking it personally, and continuing to keep trying. Sounds very familiar to entrepreneurship, which at the end of the day is about selling customers, investors, and yourself on an idea.

Re: I am done. I give up

#94

Post by jacquesm »

simple-thoughts wrote: post #84

First of all, you are not alone. Most people who try to become entrepreneurs do not succeed. Thankfully, you are self aware and willing to face the facts of your reality. A lot of people will say that success in entrepreneurship is primarily driven by luck. But what they leave out is that it’s input luck, not output luck. Inputs like a “small” $10k gift from a family member. Clean water and high nutrition during chil…

> But what they leave out is that it’s input luck, not output luck. Inputs like a “small” $10k gift from a family member. Clean water and high nutrition during childhood that lead to above average intelligence. Literacy, citizenship, family wealth, and more.

Hm, no, even if all of those things are equal the expected outcome is still failure. Your comparison works on the world stage but say within the population of a wealthy country and even just one wealthy city if 100 people were to go down this path only one or two will have a success that offsets their opportunity cost.

The kind of luck that entrepreneurs are talking about in this context is more related to markets being ripe just as your product hits them, technologies going mainstream, meeting the right business contact or partners early on and so on. Those little things can make - or break - a business depending on if they happen or not.

Re: I am done. I give up

#95

Post by synu »

Influencers are selling a dream, which can be a part of the big picture, but you have to remember, much like the people who used to sell pamphlets on tv about how to get rich, you have to ask yourself why they are selling pamphlets instead of just doing whatever their pamphlets say.

Re: I am done. I give up

#96

Post by soneca »

I went through a similar realization. Check my history of Show HN. I also have another HN account with even more failed Show HN. Keep in mind that there is luck involved. It is not the world that’s against you, it’s the chances. Also, the world of high interest rates is very different from the current world where money is not that cheap and people antecipate recession. That matters for indie hackers also, not just VC.

From your post, I feel I handled the mental health better. When I realized it was not working for me, I was ok with it. I got a job. Actually, during my indie hacking tenure, I decided to learn to code and got a better and better paying job than before as a software developer.

Also, I was never under any illusion that my chances of earning millions working a few hours a week were any better than very tiny. Expectations matter.

Finally, with a well paid job, I can keep a side project that I care about that’s not only about the money. In my case, being a fiction writer, with an accompanying digital product to pair with.

Any, try to relax for sometime. Then go back and rethink what you want with your life. What you learned will make your life better going forward.

Re: I am done. I give up

#97

Post by jacquesm »

randmeerkat wrote: post #91
jacquesm wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on the person, really. When you are younger or have rich parents you can afford yourself larger risks and that in turn has a positive effect on your chances of success. When you get older and have more responsibilities unless you have a prior success you tend to become more risk averse and so less willing to start new companies and/or make the kind of decisions that would lead to either success or comple…

> But most successful entrepreneurs I know started their first successful company in their 20's or 30's, rarely 40's. “Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45” https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes... Discussion on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409

Yes, I saw that when it first hit.

I'm sure they did a great job at researching that but it really does not match my experience at all. And I see a lot of start-ups (up to 50 / year) from the inside, at least a few hundred founders if not a 1000+ by now over the last 15 years. The bulk of the successful ones is late 20's to mid 30's.

Re: I am done. I give up

#99

Post by jsemrau »

hef19898 wrote: post #71
vineyardmike wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. And for anything with bigger ambitions than a lifestyle business, don’t forget connections. Most founders are still men from Ivies or Stanford. Just look at the “PayPal mafia” to see how inbred tech investing can be. Not that most entrepreneurs need or should expect VC funding, but this is HN, run by a VC. You can totally run a business and be…

Personally, I have a problem with the term lifestyle business. Without plenty of VC money, building and running a business is hard . VC backed up start-ups fit the "lifestyle" business definition a lot better, IMHO. One can play CxO, or chief engineer or whatever fancy title one wants to hold without putting the effort and years in, without actually worrying about those nasty things like profitability, cash flow or a…

Couldn't agree more. I learned that the hard way. Building a business with a nice funding cushion and salary is way way way different than bootstrapping.

Edit: Timebox it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

Re: I am done. I give up

#100

Post by WA »

ralphb wrote: post #74

> It's also the constant stream of digital nomad influencers on Twitter who sell extremely distorted, rosy, and often times false dreams to indie entrepreneurs like myself. I believe that all sales are about selling into peoples dreams. I am sure that the false dreams you refer are an extremely good business and a willing market, because - who doesn't want to buy the dream of being a successful entrepreneur? Ironical…

> I believe that all sales are about selling into peoples dreams.

Nah, there's selling the dream of quitting the 9-to-5, financial independence, control over one's own time. That is what this is all about. It's on a totally different level than selling the dream of, I don't know, running a marathon (by selling you a running shoe) or stopping the flow of your period with a tampon. These are actual useful products.

IMHO, selling the dream of quitting the rat race is financially extremely lucrative – and a somewhat cheap shot.

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