Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 232 posts

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

#101

Post by m3kw9 »

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…

Luck is involved in everything because whatever you have decided, it’s not a sure shot of winning. The decision to make the product a certain way for example, or certain timing, marketing spend etc and all of them matter

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

#102

Post by d23 »

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…

> 7. be lucky

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

#103

Post by logisticpeach »

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.

He also had substantially wealthy parents if I'm not mistaken. Same with Gates and others. This is the ultimate safety net.

It's easier to take risks when you have an out when it all goes really wrong. Doubt he'd still be cleaning manure today if he hadn't had a success...

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

#105

Post by gnulinux »

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…

What a heartbreaking comment to read:

> Any of us who have had at least two “successful” businesses will tell you that this quote is ridiculous.

> I’ve also failed miserably and had 5-7 business go under or never even really get off the ground.

This means that you incurred (2+) / ((2+) + (5-7)) chance of creating a successful business. This is in the spirit of the OP. Creating a business may involve some skill, but ultimately it's just a lottery. Sometimes you win only because you're lucky. Or something you lose only because you're unlucky. I apologize but I truly do think giving advise like this can be dangerous. Not everyone is as privileged and maybe a single failure can put them in life-long debt, or financial trouble, or homelessness.

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

#106

Post by renewiltord »

thfuran wrote: post #40
dvt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imo, this is completely false in the realm of software where anyone can launch a new app/project basically every other weekend and feel out what sticks & has traction.

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

This does not sound believable. Even assuming a 2 h / day commute each way, this person is working 56 h weeks with 28 h of commute? Introduce me to this poor person doing this (if they're within 50 mi of 94103) and if they have 2800 h of wages to show for last year, I will pay $1k just to talk to them for 2 h in a place of their convenience at a time of their convenience.

I think it's much more likely that people who are too poor to participate cannot participate in gainful labour in a predictable fashion, i.e. their employment is sporadic, or shifts are unpredictable, or they are seasonal labour. i.e. they are not time-constrained, they are employment-constrained.

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

#107

Post by JamesBarney »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #68
oxfordmale wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first sentence is selection bias. Of course, successful people look like they "just have it". Once you have succeeded, convincing investors to fund another opportunity is far easier. The real question is how to succeed in the first place. Having the right connections helps in getting funding. If you went to Stanford, your network would have many connections that are able to invest 5M. If you are raised in the sl…

I've bootstrapped successfully three times, and have seen it from the other side. Some people just don't get it. They have ideas that are so bad someone who "gets it" wouldn't even conceive of it as a possibility - the way that someone with Asperger's does unimaginably dumb things in social situations. Unlike Asperger's, though, people that think this way aren't a tiny minority with a diagnosed disorder but ~70% of t…

Yeah, it's really insane the number of bad ideas people try to make work.

All of the successful startups I've seen sounded like they could be successful. And every idea I've heard that sounded like it wouldn't be successful hasn't been.

Having a good business plan is no guarantee of success, but having a bad one will guarantee failure.

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

#108

Post by meetingthrower »

pdq wrote: post #75
technothrasher wrote: post #4

I only ever found one foolproof system to win the lottery, and it allowed me to win on every single ticket. I owned a retail store that sold lottery tickets. The retailer gets a small commission on every sale, and one on any ticket cashed in at the store.

This is basically the same as the VC fund model. They get annual carry (ie percentage) on every fund, and then get a percentage of the gains for every exit. Often this is "two and twenty" (aka 2% annual carry, plus 20% of the gains). Pretty awesome skimming.

Carry is the 20 (carried interest) and 2 is the management fee.

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

#109

Post by m3kw9 »

If someone say there is no luck involved they are saying they every position they take is 100% winning. 100% success rate in all decisions, sort of like a risk free investment, really no such thing.

The people you hire, there is no sure thing they can build it properly. The marketing effort, no sure shot. Absolutely every decision you make involves some luck

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

#110

Post by michaelmrose »

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.

His family was rich he is as self made as Trump.
Post reply on HN