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I am done. I give up

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Re: I am done. I give up

#661

Post by vlunkr »

opyate wrote: post #320

Succeeding in the startup world reminds me of the funfair analogy: The rich kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and miss. But, because they're a rich kid, they just take out their wallet (or parents' wallet), get more stubs, and try again (and again) until they hit the balloon. The middle class kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and also miss. Then they will walk away, saying…

That’s a great analogy. It feels to me like we’re consuming so much “zero to plushy” content these days, and in very parasocial ways. Podcasts, talk shows, documentaries, YouTubers. We’re told over and over implicitly or explicitly that we can be successful like them.

The reality is, statistically most people will die in obscurity, and at some point we need to come to terms with that.

I know I’m just describing survivorship bias and we all know this already, but it feels especially prevalent in the last few years.

Re: I am done. I give up

#662

Post by safety1st »

j45 wrote: post #238
jwr wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This . I really dislike the term "lifestyle business". What's wrong with a stable long-term business that makes founders and customers happy? Why does every business need GROWTH GROWTH GROWTH at all costs, even if the result is a net negative for customers? I sometimes explain to customers that if my business were VC-funded, it would grow and be developed much faster, but in the end there would need to be an exit and…

Most problems in a Startup are product or distribution. Most people who look down on lifestyle businesses often have the lifestyle to begin with, or are their… yet to be accomplished followers. It’s koolaid that can lose a decade of so many peoples lives. Anyone who looks down on lifestyle businesses should introspect on where it came from that it’s ok for them to look down kn another’s choices and personal formula.…

This is a million dollar comment - there is a lot in here that is right and is quite literally an insight on the path to creating millions of dollars of value.

- It is about building solid product and distribution at this stage, other stuff can wait

- If you can self-fund customer discoveries (essentially get people to pay you while teaching you about the market) you are 80% of the way there

- If you have nothing else, business skills plus an enormous amount of elbow grease will go a long way

That's my own personal lens on it anyway

Re: I am done. I give up

#663

Post by xwdv »

The world is against you. People really don't like to accept the reality that most businesses and startups will fail, they like to think they will be the exception because they are willing to work hard.

It's not enough to just work hard. You have to be lucky, and the smarter and more ruthless you are the luckier you will tend to be.

What you have described is pretty much what you should expect to happen for the vast majority of startups. No one cars about you in any sustainable, repeatable way. There's always something new and more important coming up.

Fuck startups. You want money? Just work in tech. Get a remote job, maybe two. You'll make more money than you will by trying to juggle the million different responsibilities you'll have bootstrapping a startup, half of which you probably don't really even care about doing. And you will end up working less and living, truly living, more.

You want fame and to touch the lives of millions? Just be some kind of influencer, that's all people really follow these days. Make content.

You want to change the world? Forget about it, the world will change with or without you. Trying to change the world the way you think it should be is just a thinly veiled lust for power. A selfish goal.

If you still want to have your own business, first figure out the existing businesses in the industry and find where you can close a gap to add value. This is going to take real insight, and skill, not some tweets or votes on "Product Hunt". You will have to work in the industry. Don't bother with the shiny world of mass consumer tech, it's garbage. A digital version of selling C.R.A.P. on Amazon FBA. Better to find something where you can sell a very expensive product or service to businesses that most people don't even know about. Example: We offer services where we audit tech code bases for clients who are acquiring tech companies. You've never heard of us, we sound boring (audits?!), and if we posted our business on Product Hunt no one would give a fuck. And yet we gross nearly $1.2 million a year in fees doing this, and it's not even our full time jobs. We beat out the shitty little failed startups with good graphics and social media footprints and enthusiastic CEOs. Yet the only thing people will find interesting about us is that we make some money.

So just give up, startups don't work if you force it. The more you have to try the more likely you will have to fail so you can get your life back.

Re: I am done. I give up

#664

Post by fundad »

jamiequint wrote: post #639
opyate wrote: post #320

Succeeding in the startup world reminds me of the funfair analogy: The rich kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and miss. But, because they're a rich kid, they just take out their wallet (or parents' wallet), get more stubs, and try again (and again) until they hit the balloon. The middle class kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and also miss. Then they will walk away, saying…

This seems objectively false given that the majority of extremely successful startups are founded by first or second generation immigrants, who are often not well off. https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-BILLION-DOL...

Public charge rules mean immigration to the US takes privilege.

Re: I am done. I give up

#665

Post by pclmulqdq »

lowercased wrote: post #629
kubb wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the privileges people don't often think about is being able to afford to fail. If you don't risk destitution after your startup fails, you can try and fail many times, learn and try again. It's like continuously rolling two dice, and you only need to get double sixes once, and after that it's private jets until you die. One of the many reasons the rich get richer and the poor, well you know how it goes.

I had a friend/colleague build a successful startup. I didn't know him on day one of his startup, but I knew him from very early on. He had some initial customers, and was making progress, but slow. Early on, through connections, he landed a remote contracting gig that paid a full 40 hours/week, but usually didn't consume more than 10-15 hours of his time per week, and that went down over time. It was supporting a le…

When people see "luck" they often miss "set up to capitalize on getting lucky." That is the component of skill (and background) in most entrepreneurial success stores. Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and most other mega-entrepreneurs were very good at exploiting their lucky circumstances. People who don't notice this think it's all luck because they wouldn't be where they were without the luck - they notice that the luck was necessary. They don't notice that the luck wasn't sufficient. Lottery winners are a great example of the insufficiency of luck to create wealth.

Re: I am done. I give up

#666

Post by Tycho »

bandyaboot wrote: post #601
Tycho wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we need more Elon Musks, yes. Although, obviously, we don’t want more people who got rich by being politicians.

Funny, I’d cite Elon Musk level capital accumulation and his decisions on how to allocate his capital over the last year as a perfect case study of the theory that, while capital accumulation can be a good thing, we also don’t want all our eggs in too few baskets.

Actually it’s quite good - because he spent $40bln we got to see detailed evidence of government agencies working hand-on-glove with corporations to censor information and shape political outcomes (a few years ago it was trendy to refer to this as arrangement as “fascism”).

Re: I am done. I give up

#667

Post by rebelos »

miraculixx wrote: post #518
blagie wrote: post #40

Having done several options -- entrepreneurship, job, internal entrepreneurship, and consulting, my advice: - Entrepreneurship isn't a lifestyle. Stay in a job unless you have a good idea and are ready to execute. - Try your idea internally. Starting a new product in a company is easier than outside. It doesn't have a $1B upside, but it has enough upside, in all respects (not just financial -- learning, credibility,…

Well yes and no. Innovating as an employee sucks because somebody else gets all the benefits.

You can only get the benefits as a founder if you have the same lever as the company (which you usually don't).

Re: I am done. I give up

#668

Post by moneywoes »

fakedang wrote: post #45

My current advice, which seems to be working well so far, is to do small tasks for huge government corporations and organizations for FREE, no questions asked. Don't know how well this could work in the American context, but this has worked for 3 places I've lived in (UK, UAE, India). You don't earn cash but you will earn an INSANE amount of goodwill and connections. The next time, they need a tech solution, they'll…

Any outreach examples?

Re: I am done. I give up

#669

Post by cf141q5325 »

As dumb as it sounds, good for you. There is this great podcast with Annie Duke about how quitting is a difficult skill and how easily we get trapped chained to not functioning approaches due to not looking at it rationally. Maybe the analogy of all the corpses on Mount Everest who ignored the turnaround time will make you feel a bit better about your decision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jMLqcfX9dU

edit: For anyone not listening to it, the practical take away is the importance of setting kill criteria (to recognize something isnt working) upfront to combat cognitive biases and your emotions in the moment.

Re: I am done. I give up

#670

Post by starkd »

meristohm wrote: post #520
koobe wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flip side of the welfare state is the heavy tax burden. Heavily progressive income tax makes it harder for individuals to accumulate capital for enterprenial endeavours, be it their own or investing in others'. This limits early stage investments and growth. Also, there are limited incentives in investing in careers and productivity as net income is surprisingly similar in lowest 10% and highest 10% income earners.

Burden? If the substrate/infrastructure you're playing in is maintained by our tax money, count your blessings and work to build trust in a system that, as others in this thread have already said, helps set everyone up to more-safely fail and grow. No one person is so important that we need to cultivate philanthropists. I'd far rather we collectively decide what to do with wealth generated from natural resources (all…

He's saying the heavy tax burden drains capitol accumulation. Too generous benefits prohibits the filtering mechanism built into markets that stops a society's resources from being drained into unproductive resources. Not ideal, but advocates of near universal welfare support do not seem to have a good answer to this problem.
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