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Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

bbc.com

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Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#111

Post by czbond »

melenaboija wrote: post #98
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…

I think you missed the point. As middle class you can't fail with your dart, you are either lucky or good with it. Maybe you are part of the latter, but if you miss your shot you are fucked in either case. Wealthy people can be damn bad with it but keep trying until it works, and if you are rich enough you don't even need to hit the center once and keep going.

Of course you can miss your shot. Many, many times. But it just means each time you have to give up a little more of your personal time and freedom for the next shot.

No nights or weekends after the j.o.b. - each has to decide if that is worth it to them.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#112

Post by brightball »

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…

Starting a business is much easier for married couples who are on the same page about what to do. Succeeding is a heck of a lot harder. Both work, you live off the job income from one while the other focuses on starting the business. In preparation for living on a single income, you budget and save the income of the other spouse to start the business. This strategy also works great for saving for a down payment on a house too.

A dual income couple can accomplish a lot if they communicate, plan and support each other.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#113

Post by koromak »

avidphantasm wrote: post #12
rco8786 wrote: post #3

I am 100% certain that many entrepreneurs regret their choices. But kicking off this article highlighting a person whose stated alternative to entrepreneurship was "consistent 7-figures at a management consulting firm" is laughable, as though that's an option for most people.

Yeah, my reaction to that quote was, “well at least probably did less damage to society as an entrepreneur.”

Exactly

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#114

Post by czbond »

pvsukale3 wrote: post #34
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…

I agree, a lot of things you do in life are based on how many times can you absorb the failure and recover from it. This ability is just not financial, it also has physical, mental health, relationships aspect to it. You could get be the "lucky" person either tomorrow or 10 years from now, question is how long can you afford to continue.

You can always afford to continue - just with your after hours work job nights and weekends.

In my experience, the stress and mental aspects are the hardest because each has to decide what to give up for potentially nothing in return.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#115

Post by NineStarPoint »

yawnxyz wrote: post #46

What's worse: failing to start a company, or believing your skills and your job are going to keep you safe/secure and create a sustainable life and retirement? At this point, they're probably equally risky.

Well if your skills and your job are considered static, yeah that’s equally risky. If you have the ability to keep learning and evolve with the job market, then no I think that’s still a much safer option.

Or maybe it’s better to say that starting a successful company is extremely reliant on your ability to have insight into what need in the market isn’t being filled and how to monetize that need (or what needs can be created, if you’re extremely ambitious). If you can learn quickly, navigating “what skills will existing businesses pay a premium for” takes much less insight in comparison.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#116

Post by hydrok9 »

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…

A lot of people who make money love "making money" most of all. I come from a successful entrepreneurial family and it was the big difference between my parents and most of their peers, my parents did not care about money per se, it was just part of the business. But the other businesspeople they knew, they loved making money. Loved it.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#117

Post by blitz_skull »

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…

If you can't afford to sink the money into a startup, you probably should not attempt to do so, right?

The fallacy here lies in assuming that every startup requires capital. Capital greases the wheels, sure. But far too many people think entrepreneurship is just dumping money into an "idea" until it works, and that's actually the worst possible way to go about building a business.

I've been building businesses since I was 10. Very low income family. They certainly weren't funding anything (nor was I in middle-school). But the spirit of entrepreneurship has always been there.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#118

Post by zdragnar »

pc86 wrote: post #90
nsoonhui wrote: post #82

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. 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.

The point the GP was refuting- that middle class kids only get one throw - is also not an actual fact.

I'll take their assessment of their life ("lived experience" in modern parlance) over a bad analogy any day.

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#119

Post by broast »

czbond wrote: post #111
melenaboija wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you missed the point. As middle class you can't fail with your dart, you are either lucky or good with it. Maybe you are part of the latter, but if you miss your shot you are fucked in either case. Wealthy people can be damn bad with it but keep trying until it works, and if you are rich enough you don't even need to hit the center once and keep going.

Of course you can miss your shot. Many, many times. But it just means each time you have to give up a little more of your personal time and freedom for the next shot. No nights or weekends after the j.o.b. - each has to decide if that is worth it to them.

This is still more than other more privaleged people have to sacrifice per attempt

Re: Entrepreneurs who regret starting businesses

#120

Post by vlovich123 »

revelio wrote: post #35
vlovich123 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you need to leave tech and VC money. VC’s are happy to throw money behind a bunch of smart college kids. Go try to go a different route and see all the doors shut. Also you don’t get to see all the people who don’t try their hand at entrepreneurship because the gamble is too great for them.

Yes, but the reason it's harder to get money for those sorts of businesses is because they're much less likely to generate large returns. The BBC couldn't / didn't want to find any tech entrepreneurs for this article (it's not like the UK doesn't have them), so they focus on people doing contracting or agency work. Of course it'll be tough to get investment in such a low margin and competitive business, VCs don't inv…

Except a huge amount of VC plays are basically just gambling on someone succeeding. They don’t care who. So you’ve got 1 success story for every 100 attempts. Sure that 1 generated outsized returns, but that doesn’t help the 100 that failed and lost time and money they could have gotten elsewhere.

Additionally, VC plays are often are parasitic endeavors that try to acquire monopoly positions by flooding the market to corner it (ie kill all competition) before raising prices (eg Uber prices raise to pretty close to taxis once the local taxis have been run out of business). If you prevented flooding the market as a tactic, the entrepreneurship model would change drastically. And that is something we used to try to prevent but for some reason we only did it once for the commodities market but let it continue unabashed everywhere else.

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