121–130 of 279 posts
My dad had successful business he started in his 40s, but it failed in his mid 50s. He was engineer before, so it wasn't like he could just go back in the job market. Those were very difficult years.
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…
Realize the game you and your family are playing. Middle class have 3 paths out: - Single shot entrepreneurship - Repeated entrepreneurship with a job (no free nights or weekends) - Long term, multi generational wealth building over the course of 40-100 years with a mixture of stable career or above A wealthy family did the above but a generation or two before you or yours & someone else is reaping the benefit. Don't…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Realize the game you and your family are playing. Middle class have 3 paths out: - Single shot entrepreneurship - Repeated entrepreneurship with a job (no free nights or weekends) - Long term, multi generational wealth building over the course of 40-100 years with a mixture of stable career or above A wealthy family did the above but a generation or two before you or yours & someone else is reaping the benefit. Don't…
That's not how most generational wealth was created. From mobsters that went "legit" (Bronfmans, Kennedys...) to people who build their fortunes off war profiteering, slavery, genocide, child labor... They weren't grinding away for 40-100 years at some labor job. They exploited people, captured the gains, then used the power law to stay on the top.
Just as one can't judge a person who's on the streets - one can't judge a wealthy person with such lenses.
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…
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…
Back in the mid 90s, I had the opportunity to join a small startup. I took a 50% pay cut and took a big risk; but I got a healthy chunk of founder's stock so if it worked out, I would be rewarded. Turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made; but I also made it when I was young and single with no one to take care of but myself. I seriously doubt I would have done that just a few years later when I was married and had a couple young kids.
Rich people can afford to take more risk and do it more times than can people with more modest means. It is certainly possible for the middle class to make it work; but they have to be more strategic and careful and thanks for pointing out a few ways to do that.
One of the things I learned running my first startup was that I really don't enjoy running a business. The mountains of admin work, the never-ending decision making, the constant anxiety of whether or not I made the right call, the pressure to never actually switch off and just work work work , all of the pointless 'networking' with people who're pretending to be interested ... it all adds up to a pretty horrible exp…
I always ask candidates why they want to work at an early stage startup as a developer, and “because it must be fun” is a show stopper. Being a founder is certainly not fun. The good parts are there, like earning money, interacting with your team and seeing them grow, the first round, the first sale. But the job is quite painful itself. Please note that not all startups and founders are / want to be funded with billi…
It is closer to the type of "hard fun" one has training and running a marathon, than the "easy fun" of watching a movie or playing a game.