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“Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

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Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#81

Post by SamReidHughes »

loudandskittish wrote: post #58
bluefirebrand wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it just looks to me like the lottery you won is not "having a successful business", but "having the luxury and connections to try and fail 5-7 times with one success" Most people cannot afford to recover from failing once.

Yeah, this is one of the things that drives me nuts about these "inspirational" stories where some millionaire/billionaire talks proudly about how their first business failed, their car was repo'd, bank foreclosed on them, etc... but I've never heard one talk about what they did between that and the successful business. Where did they sleep? How did they afford food?

> Where did they sleep?

Maybe at least one of their parents had a sofa.

The trick is to have parents who aren't homeless.

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#82

Post by encoderer »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #46
jollofricepeas wrote: post #20

This is stupid. Any of us who have had at least two “successful” businesses will tell you that this quote is ridiculous. What’s your ideal of being successful? If it’s exiting at a billion, then sorry. But you can use a lot of this entrepreneur advice to find some level of success. The problem is that non-entrepreneur or first timers always try to skip the small stuff. 1. have a good team and hire right. you need jus…

Honestly it just looks to me like the lottery you won is not "having a successful business", but "having the luxury and connections to try and fail 5-7 times with one success" Most people cannot afford to recover from failing once.

This is a little pessimistic.

Just take smaller risks. I built my first business over nights and weekends and didn’t quit my day job for 5 years.

If you want something bad enough you just have to take the chance.

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#83

Post by itronitron »

boca_honey wrote: post #56
jollofricepeas wrote: post #20

This is stupid. Any of us who have had at least two “successful” businesses will tell you that this quote is ridiculous. What’s your ideal of being successful? If it’s exiting at a billion, then sorry. But you can use a lot of this entrepreneur advice to find some level of success. The problem is that non-entrepreneur or first timers always try to skip the small stuff. 1. have a good team and hire right. you need jus…

You won the lottery in the sense that you went to college, live in a well-off english speaking country and as such, can burn through 5-7 failures. I'm sure you're smart and hard working, and I don't believe in shaming gringos as if being born rich (e.g. having access to a toilet and clean water) was their own fault. You deserve to be happy with what you have. But will never get to be preachy about it without some one…

Most gringos can not burn through a single failure, let alone 5-7. This helps to explain why the US Military is as large as it is...

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#84

Post by thfuran »

dvt wrote: post #48
thfuran wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know that some people spend their weekend working to make rent rather than launching apps that they hope might work?

Of course, but we're not talking about people in poverty, or that are homeless, etc. You're just bringing up a weird red herring that's orthogonal to my point--namely, that the bar is extremely accessible (esp. compared to ventures prior to the advent of computers).

We aren't? Then next time you mean something other than "completely false", I'd recommend steering clear of the phrase "completely false".

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#85

Post by bboygravity »

loudandskittish wrote: post #58
bluefirebrand wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it just looks to me like the lottery you won is not "having a successful business", but "having the luxury and connections to try and fail 5-7 times with one success" Most people cannot afford to recover from failing once.

Yeah, this is one of the things that drives me nuts about these "inspirational" stories where some millionaire/billionaire talks proudly about how their first business failed, their car was repo'd, bank foreclosed on them, etc... but I've never heard one talk about what they did between that and the successful business. Where did they sleep? How did they afford food?

They do talk about that.

Elon Musk cleaned out manure tanks for a while in Canada if I'm not mistaking. There are some interviews where he talks about this (and showering at the gym across the street and sleeping under a desk and having no money) in quite some detail.

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#86

Post by [deleted] »

bboygravity wrote: post #85
loudandskittish wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is one of the things that drives me nuts about these "inspirational" stories where some millionaire/billionaire talks proudly about how their first business failed, their car was repo'd, bank foreclosed on them, etc... but I've never heard one talk about what they did between that and the successful business. Where did they sleep? How did they afford food?

They do talk about that. Elon Musk cleaned out manure tanks for a while in Canada if I'm not mistaking. There are some interviews where he talks about this (and showering at the gym across the street and sleeping under a desk and having no money) in quite some detail.

[deleted]

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#87

Post by callmetom »

talentedcoin wrote: post #26
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #23

Pretty clear to me after meeting a number of very successful people in NYC/SF that some people "just have it". Meaning, they can identify opportunities that have a high probability of success and execute on those opportunities. There are absolutely personality types/genetic backgrounds where stumbling into 100M based on thinking of an idea is a real thing. Also, if someone went to a school like Stanford, its common f…

Sorry, but I don’t think you know anything about “genetic background” if you think it correlates with making money.

[dead]

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#88

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

jollofricepeas wrote: post #20

This is stupid. Any of us who have had at least two “successful” businesses will tell you that this quote is ridiculous. What’s your ideal of being successful? If it’s exiting at a billion, then sorry. But you can use a lot of this entrepreneur advice to find some level of success. The problem is that non-entrepreneur or first timers always try to skip the small stuff. 1. have a good team and hire right. you need jus…

You are rightfully being pilloried. At age 40+ you really need to have more wisdom.

Re: “Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice

#89

Post by docandrew »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #23

Pretty clear to me after meeting a number of very successful people in NYC/SF that some people "just have it". Meaning, they can identify opportunities that have a high probability of success and execute on those opportunities. There are absolutely personality types/genetic backgrounds where stumbling into 100M based on thinking of an idea is a real thing. Also, if someone went to a school like Stanford, its common f…

I started a business and realized very quickly that there are people who are good at sales and business development, and I’m not one of them.

The overall experience was still very worthwhile - what I learned about that side of things made me a better engineer, and I have a newfound respect for people who are good at the business side of things.

It would be easy for me to chalk it up to bad luck or not having the right privilege or whatever, but that just would be sour grapes.

As with everything in life, hard work can make up for lesser talent or bad luck, great talent can make up for a lack of effort, and being lucky is sometimes better than either.

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