Entrepreneurship truly is a roller coaster. You constantly swing from ecstasy to depression, sometimes on a day by day basis. The underlying truth is that over time this cycle does not cease; it will continue in full force. However, over time things get better. I may be an optimist, but I believe that in the long run things always get better. One of my professors showed my class a graph that described this effect, which I have recreated. [1] In the long run, an entrepreneur's lows can be better than the rest of the world's highs. That is the future we seek.
The Real Silicon Valley
61–70 of 154 posts
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#62Why be depressed? If you are young and a programmer making 100K at 25, party with your hipster friends and sock away 40K in savings every year. You'll end up with 200K by 30, not a cool billion dollar but with 6% muni-bonds, you suddenly have tax-free interest income of equivalent of $1.2 million at regular 1% CD rate. Work on interesting projects that you want to work on. Do some traveling. Go back to grad school fo…
If you think success will cure depression, your youthful inexperience is showing.
Success cures depression that is caused by lack of success or, relatedly, low social status.
That doesn't apply to most depression, that being often a serious biological problem. No amount of success will cure that. That requires psychiatric help.
It does alleviate a certain gnawing unhappiness that most ambitious people experience (unless the definition of success is raised, which it often is).
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone knows startups are not the optimal economically rational way to make money. But to an entrepreneur, living off 6% muni bond interest is profoundly uninteresting, and dare I say soul crushing. Repeat after me: If you think it's only about the money, you're missing the point. And even if it is all about the money, most 25 year olds would jump at a 1% chance to make $10 million over a $100% chance to make $200K…
Better way to make money is to take out a personal loan for 100K, same opportunity cost of two years of programmer-salary on startups. Buy out of the money options on small-cap pharmacuetical facing FDA decisions, you have the ability to also make $10 million overnight with 30% success. Go for insider-tips to max out on your success.
Is this... legit? or was it ever?
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#64Bah Humbug (please excuse me, it's just a seasonal expression). While I can feel your pain, this story has nothing to do with SV - it's the story of an entrepreneur. The same story exists in every state in the U.S. and every major city (and most small ones) in the world. Entrepreneurship is very hard. I'm 41 y/o and bootstrapped my first internet company at 24. I owned a nice home, a beautiful vacation (lake) home, a…
Well said. I was struggling today with my art, and your words resonated- the truth is deeper than entrepreneurship. I realized that for the millionth time, I was expecting something to be easy, and it never is. It always helps to hear real life stories, thank you.
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#65Bah Humbug (please excuse me, it's just a seasonal expression). While I can feel your pain, this story has nothing to do with SV - it's the story of an entrepreneur. The same story exists in every state in the U.S. and every major city (and most small ones) in the world. Entrepreneurship is very hard. I'm 41 y/o and bootstrapped my first internet company at 24. I owned a nice home, a beautiful vacation (lake) home, a…
Well put.
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#66Hey Jesse, great post though I'm sorry to hear about your startup. If you need a place to crash, I have a spare room for friends who are starting companies, folding companies or just passing through the Valley. Feel free to get in touch anytime. In the meantime, thought you might like this quote from a piece Michael Arrington wrote a while back: "Some of the richest people I know aren’t really entrepreneurs. They wor…
spot on.
And leave the deniers be happy in their mindless happy existence.
They may look as good or even better (richer) but it ain't the true thing.
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone knows startups are not the optimal economically rational way to make money. But to an entrepreneur, living off 6% muni bond interest is profoundly uninteresting, and dare I say soul crushing. Repeat after me: If you think it's only about the money, you're missing the point. And even if it is all about the money, most 25 year olds would jump at a 1% chance to make $10 million over a $100% chance to make $200K…
Better way to make money is to take out a personal loan for 100K, same opportunity cost of two years of programmer-salary on startups. Buy out of the money options on small-cap pharmacuetical facing FDA decisions, you have the ability to also make $10 million overnight with 30% success. Go for insider-tips to max out on your success.
Wow, I had no idea Mathew Martoma frequented HN.
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody has mentioned taxes yet. I assume your "making 100K" is the salary. The pre-tax salary. Taxes will chop that pretty much in half. So if you save $40K/year, you get to live off of $10k in the second most expensive MSA in the US. Good luck.
This is way overly pessimistic. At 100k total taxes (Federal+CA+SS+Medicare) are in the 30% range. That leaves 30k to spend (not too hard for a single 25 year old assuming you don't have lots of student loans, even in SF) and 40k to save. And this ignores tax-advantaged savings
At 100k, take-home pay is $65,278. Closer to 35% "total taxes"
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#69I really wish there was a way to: (a) have the autonomy and interesting work of a startup tech founder (while a full-time technologist, not a manager) but (b) without the extreme income variance. If your job requires you to take personal loans, there's something wrong. I also think there are a lot of people who have the talent but not the ability to afford the risk.
The extreme income variance is a bug, not a feature, in my opinion. I'd be willing to sell all upside past $100 million (which would have median value of zero, but reasonable expectancy given the autonomy I'd have) in exchange for downside insurance, because I can't possibly imagine why I'd even want $10 billion.
Re: The Real Silicon Valley
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone knows startups are not the optimal economically rational way to make money. But to an entrepreneur, living off 6% muni bond interest is profoundly uninteresting, and dare I say soul crushing. Repeat after me: If you think it's only about the money, you're missing the point. And even if it is all about the money, most 25 year olds would jump at a 1% chance to make $10 million over a $100% chance to make $200K…
Better way to make money is to take out a personal loan for 100K, same opportunity cost of two years of programmer-salary on startups. Buy out of the money options on small-cap pharmacuetical facing FDA decisions, you have the ability to also make $10 million overnight with 30% success. Go for insider-tips to max out on your success.
A scheme similar to this is why I was reading medical and science journals in the late 90s for background knowledge, then scouring the pink sheets for applicable companies.
In the end, the hits I had were more or less luck, though. And on microscopic levels of investment, so I didn't get rich.