You didn't fail you learned
Why have I failed?
31–40 of 54 posts
Re: Why have I failed?
#32welcome to club hacı :)
Re: Why have I failed?
#33Reading his backstory, I think it was because he quit his job to become an entrepreneur. He just put the cart before the horse, that's all. Find a good company, find a good project, work on it. When you see a true market for something, then and only then should you go after it. Don't just be an entrepreneur because you think it's what you want to do—it's not about you, it's about the market and the value you can prov…
>Don't just be an entrepreneur because you think it's what you want to do-it's not about you, it's about the market and the value you can provide to it. This should be considered a powerful quote that everyone should live by.
Exactly, in fairness I think the original author has figured this out, but its an important litmus test.
If you want to be an entrepreneur you first need to discover a problem you are passionate about fixing, and you enjoy working on. You will need that to carry you through the hard work. Finding that is best done by working for someone else and spending your personal time reading, networking, and listening. While you are working for someone else, hone those skills that make you a better employee, and you can use as an entrepreneur, get better at writing code, develop tools to communicate clearly, think through assignments and figure out what needs to be done to complete them. All great skills.
Re: Why have I failed?
#34dang, a lot of what he wrote resonate with me. the difference is, i've been meaning to ASK people here in HN for some advice regarding my project (i don't dare to call it startup yet), but been deferring it since i haven't translated my website in english. if i might add, for the Programming part: don't develop your startup with cool tech/language/framework you just heard yesterday. it's fun, but you'll get sidetrack…
Hey man, I've already written blog posts in english about a project in french, and people here on HN were really enthusiastic to share their comments, and I learnt a lot from it - so I think you've got nothing to lose. You don't need to translate your whole website in english, and you know, people can use google translate (not sure how it works for Bahasa Indonesia though ;-) )
Re: Why have I failed?
#35greatly put: my job is not programming. My job is delivering value using programming.
Re: Why have I failed?
#36Funny, had you been more successful (by any definition), most of these comments would still be true. Successful people make many of the same mistakes you're citing here. I hate to paraphrase and respond to your entire post, but it was such an interesting one, so here goes... did not take care myself; emotionally and physically Yes! This must always be #1. As Vince Lombardi said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." If…
Very well put. Concise and constructive.
Re: Why have I failed?
#37"Should take the money when a beta user offered to pay" Not sure about this point. Why would we take money if we knew the product is not in a working condition. And what if, the product doesn't get to a stage where we feel the fee justifies.
I get your feelings here, and I think they say good things about you. But until you take money, you aren't running a business. What with business cards, a nice website, and an office, it might look like a business, but it's just an expensive fantasy.
Money is proof that your customers find you valuable. If you are really worried that the money is more an expression of faith and that you might not earn it, then don't recognize the revenue. Keep the money separate so you can give it back if things don't work out. But take the money. And then ask other people for money.
Avoiding taking money is basically avoiding finding out whether or not you've got something good. Your answer to that question is almost irrelevant. It's your potential customers that you should be listening to. One of the truest answers they will give you is their first check. (Still truer ones are regular checks and referrals to friends.) So take the money.
Re: Why have I failed?
#38Funny, had you been more successful (by any definition), most of these comments would still be true. Successful people make many of the same mistakes you're citing here. I hate to paraphrase and respond to your entire post, but it was such an interesting one, so here goes... did not take care myself; emotionally and physically Yes! This must always be #1. As Vince Lombardi said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." If…
Thank you
Re: Why have I failed?
#39Aren't we all one low point away from writing something like this?
Thanks for your openness!
Re: Why have I failed?
#40Hi bcambel, big congrats to your courage and honesty - one of the biggest learning for me of being an entrepreneur is the humility.
Just a thought, you might want to think of yourself as "an entrepreneur that failed once" rather than "a failed entrepreneur". In psychology that makes a big difference in how we label ourselves. Relate the failure to an incident in our lives, rather than an attribute that we belong to.
Also, just curious, what made you decide to give up? What are your plans now? All the best.