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

Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 279 posts

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#81

Post by blueprint »

FlyingSnake wrote: post #8

Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on. Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good…

what universe do you live in where someone making gte 100k working the carnival is poor?

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#82

Post by nsoonhui »

boplicity wrote: post #74
FlyingSnake wrote: post #8

Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on. Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good…

> Middle class kids can afford one throw. Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money. I started bootstrapping microbusinesses with almost no monetary investment. This eventually allowed me to support myself (on a very low budget), and then, later, on a slightly larger budget. Eventually, one of these businesses became succes…

>> Middle class kids can afford one throw.

> Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money.

You said you are fortunate, that actually proves rather than disproves the parent comment, no?

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#83

Post by coldtea »

boplicity wrote: post #74
FlyingSnake wrote: post #8

Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on. Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good…

> Middle class kids can afford one throw. Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money. I started bootstrapping microbusinesses with almost no monetary investment. This eventually allowed me to support myself (on a very low budget), and then, later, on a slightly larger budget. Eventually, one of these businesses became succes…

>Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money. I started bootstrapping microbusinesses with almost no monetary investment. This eventually allowed me to support myself (on a very low budget), and then, later, on a slightly larger budget. Eventually, one of these businesses became successful enough to support a family comfortably with an "upper" middle class income.

That's still a random individual outcome. What matters is aggregate outcomes, what happens to most middle class kids who want to be enterpreneurs for example, and how many chances they get.

There's also the matter of the quality of those chances (what kind of changes you get with $300K in the bank and dad's rich people connections vs $0 in the bank and middle class connections).

That's even before considering the chances afforded to middle class kids now versus then.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#84

Post by boplicity »

inconceivable wrote: post #14
throwaway8456 wrote: post #10

I started, boostrapped and sold a SaaS business. By most standards, this was a resounding success. I won't have to work again ever if I don't want to. This being my first company, I was obsessed with it. Towards the end, I burnt myself out, I had neglected my wife and kids for years, and I was just so miserable. I used to love programming, but I could not concentrate anymore. I started developing resentment against t…

i also sold in 2021 when the money flowed easy. i'm not set for life but i could easily go 10 years, longer if i sold assets. eventually the burnout faded, my health improved (knock on wood) and the boredom got to me after 1.5 years and i'm working again. working on personal projects "for fun" is not the same as making money, no matter what anyone says. buying expensive shit is awesome for a while but it gets old. es…

> what drives billionaires to keep going

I don't think it's a mystery; if you want to do a good job, then you'll continue to want to do a good job, even if you're already succeeding at doing a good job.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#85

Post by Axsuul »

randlet wrote: post #63
jwr wrote: post #30

I can see a number of data points in the comments, let me add another one. I started a self-funded SaaS business fairly late (in my 40s). I was tired of being dependent on others, especially as others mostly failed me in the past. I wanted to be independent: no investors, no bosses, no employees. Just me. It took five years of slow growth to get to a stage where I didn't have to worry about revenue. Do I regret it? H…

How do you deal with the bus factor as a B2B? I lost a few larger contracts because customers would not risk making a one person business a core part of their workflow.

I’m in a similar situation and this has not been an issue, at all.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#86

Post by coldtea »

nightski wrote: post #61
FlyingSnake wrote: post #8

Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on. Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good…

The world will never be fair, I'm not even sure that is an ideal goal. The best things in my life have come from when I faced adversity, not when I was in a position of privilege. While opportunities are not always equal in quality or number, there are opportunities if you seek them. It's ironic that even though lots of things come down to luck, it's very possible to put oneself in a position that makes it feel like…

If fairness is not an "ideal goal" what is?

>The best things in my life have come from when I faced adversity, not when I was in a position of privilege

Does that hold for kids hungry and unable to finish school because their parents don't make enough then? (Or much worse situations)?

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#87

Post by aww_dang »

shubhamjain wrote: post #39
FlyingSnake wrote: post #8

Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on. Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good…

[flagged]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29688489

It isn't the first thread like this. No sense in rehashing the same arguments again and again. Pessimists cannot be convinced. Their world view is self-reinforcing. Worse yet, they have every incentive to ignore evidence to the contrary.

Arguments from first principles are always the strongest. If you don't try, you cannot succeed.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#88

Post by boplicity »

nsoonhui wrote: post #82
boplicity wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Middle class kids can afford one throw. Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money. I started bootstrapping microbusinesses with almost no monetary investment. This eventually allowed me to support myself (on a very low budget), and then, later, on a slightly larger budget. Eventually, one of these businesses became succes…

>> Middle class kids can afford one throw. > Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money. You said you are fortunate, that actually proves rather than disproves the parent comment, no?

I don't understand your logic. I was middle class, and could afford more than one throw. The assumption in the OP was that a middle class kid can only afford one throw, which wasn't true, in my case.

I was fortunate, because I knew better than to "throw" all of my money at an opportunity, not because I wasn't middle class.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#89

Post by marpstar »

komali2 wrote: post #25
throwaway8456 wrote: post #10

I started, boostrapped and sold a SaaS business. By most standards, this was a resounding success. I won't have to work again ever if I don't want to. This being my first company, I was obsessed with it. Towards the end, I burnt myself out, I had neglected my wife and kids for years, and I was just so miserable. I used to love programming, but I could not concentrate anymore. I started developing resentment against t…

> But I have lost my marriage along the way, and I have definitely lost a few years of life expectancy. > I really wonder if it was really all worth it. Wait, are you saying you don't think you'd have lost the marriage if you didn't do the startup? Surely it wasn't worth it if so?

A lost marriage isn't always for the worst.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#90

Post by pc86 »

nsoonhui wrote: post #82
boplicity wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Middle class kids can afford one throw. Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money. I started bootstrapping microbusinesses with almost no monetary investment. This eventually allowed me to support myself (on a very low budget), and then, later, on a slightly larger budget. Eventually, one of these businesses became succes…

>> Middle class kids can afford one throw. > Gotta disagree with this. As someone who grew up middle class, I was fortunate, in a lot of ways, to also learn to be prudent with money. You said you are fortunate, that actually proves rather than disproves the parent comment, no?

The parent comment is a cute little story that makes people feel better, without any actual facts, so there's not really anything to prove or disprove.

But no, they meant that not having unlimited funds meant having to be creative or having to focus on business ideas where huge budgets were unnecessary.

Post reply on HN