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Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

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Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

#21

Post by mdolon »

dhouston wrote: post #19
vaksel wrote: post #11

don't waste your college years. That was 4 years of not needing to worry about food or paying rent that could have been used to launch and grow a startup to profitability.

ugh. there's plenty of time to start companies, but those 4 years of "not needing to worry about food or paying rent" are unique.

Totally agree.. as a recent (may 08) graduate, college didn't feel very productive in terms of starting a company but I do think I had the time of my life. I tried to spend most of my time enjoying the experience of having so many great people around me and soaking up the myriad of information from my classes. While I didn't end up starting a prosperous business in undergrad life, I did network like crazy and tried to learn a few skills to help me in my career choice (entrepreneurship).

That's one thing I don't think I regret or would tell my younger self to change. Don't get too caught up in work to miss out on the incredible experience that is college!

Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

#22

Post by vaksel »

dhouston wrote: post #19
vaksel wrote: post #11

don't waste your college years. That was 4 years of not needing to worry about food or paying rent that could have been used to launch and grow a startup to profitability.

ugh. there's plenty of time to start companies, but those 4 years of "not needing to worry about food or paying rent" are unique.

the thing is that in those 4 years you can take it slow. You don't have the added stress of running out of money to pay for rent etc.

1-2 hours per day on a startup in college is no big deal. You have so much free time in college, that you can easily fit in doing a startup, going to class and having a decent social life.

Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

#23

Post by yan »

Work a little bit harder. When you're already doing average school work, it doesn't take much more effort to be excellent.

Experiment.

Don't be afraid to speak up; Don't be afraid to be wrong.

Regretting something you didn't do is always far, far worse than regretting something you did.

I'm still 23 though, so I still need this advice. Putting it to practice is harder than it should be.

edit: Also, don't rush school. Keep track of idle time.

Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

#25

Post by code_devil »

jeffa107 wrote: post #17

Make more mistakes; don't be afraid to fail. A college degree is overrated; the opposite is true of self-teaching. Buy the Corvette. It's expensive and impractical but you'll never have more fun with a car like that than you will at 24.

I totally agree about buying your dream car :-) .. I bought a SC430 2 yrs ago when I was 23.

Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

#27

Post by ChaitanyaSai »

sivers wrote: post #20

I got to do this! It's a great exercise. My college (Berklee College of Music) asked me to give a talk to the incoming freshmen class on opening day. I wrote it by asking, "What would I tell my younger self?" I called it "6 things I wish I knew the day I started Berklee" and came up with these 6: #1 : Focus. Disconnect. Do not be distracted. #2 : Do not accept their speed limit. #3 : Nobody will teach you anything. Y…

That was a good talk! I am guessing most of us have regrets and/or proven recipes for our younger selves. However, I do wonder if simply pointing to a list would have helped me. The process by which we arrive at these points is more important, and that seems to be introspection after missing (or meeting, but rarely does success lead to introspection) childhood goals. Unfortunately, I don't think I would have valued introspection over poorly thought out reasoning for why my existing trajectory would lead straight into the lush fields of success.

Would I have, I wonder, been more receptive if I had been asked to meditate on why the counter to any prescription was bad? Why, for instance, was focus important enough to trump the sheer enjoyment of youthful disorientation and distraction?

Re: Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

#30

Post by jhancock »

vaksel wrote: post #11

don't waste your college years. That was 4 years of not needing to worry about food or paying rent that could have been used to launch and grow a startup to profitability.

"don't waste your college years"

precisely...two chicks at the same time. don't blow it. College is the absolute best time to achieve this with just a bottle of vodka instead of needing to become a millionaire.

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