You've got this backwards. You want to gamble with other people's money, not your own. Some people took a stake in you because they thought it was a good bet. I'm assuming they were intelligent rational people who could make their own investment decisions. They lost and have moved on. You don't like being a loser, so don't be one.
The Truth about a Failing Startup
121–130 of 169 posts
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#122We're about the same age and i totally resonate.
I personally think of failures as necessary steps towards the ultimate success. So try to look back and reflect, take notes and consult with people on why shit happened. It will be a true failure is don't learn anything from it.
learning is a lesson is great but gaining wise experience is super important.
keep your chin up be proud of what you accomplished (startup idea, investors, and a shot) it's more than other majority will ever get!
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#123Hey, fellow failed entrepreneur here. My startup failed about 6-9 months ago. It was a very difficult time, our business partners went back on their promises and with that 3+ years of my life went down the drain. It was a terrible couple of months, lots of lost sleep, high blood pressure, I'm still dealing with it. I was unemployed for a couple of months, then finally took a job at a great company, where I feel great…
> Don't lie to your parents. They're your safe harbour, they will understand and help you. Tell them what's going on.
I understand what you mean by this, but just wanted to comment that this is not unambiguously good advice. Some parents have their own issues (severe anxiety, substance abuse, poor interpersonal skills, etc) and can't act as a safe harbor; lie to those parents if you've got to! Leave them in the dark! Find someone else to talk to about your problems.
I am glad that you have supportive and stable parents, though, but some people don't.
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#124Hey, fellow failed entrepreneur here. My startup failed about 6-9 months ago. It was a very difficult time, our business partners went back on their promises and with that 3+ years of my life went down the drain. It was a terrible couple of months, lots of lost sleep, high blood pressure, I'm still dealing with it. I was unemployed for a couple of months, then finally took a job at a great company, where I feel great…
Thanks for your story, I appreciate you sharing it. I agree with you about the only constant in life being change. I think it's even older than buddhism, I seem to recall it was Heraclitus who put it as "change is the only permanence". As for the OP, I hope he stops taking losing investor money so personally. The investors knew well they bought a lottery ticket. Had OP succeeded, the investors would, of course, have…
Small nitpick: Buddha(563 BCE-483 BCE (aged 80) or 411 and 400 BCE) predates Heraclitus(535 BC-475 BC), but your point definitely stands, as I'm sure that realization predates recorded history.
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#125Is it really this bad for everyone? I am just starting to fund my startup now so I have yet to be in your position. But I've certainly faced a lot of challenges in life and in my career, depression included, unemployment included, confusion after receiving an expensive degree from a liberal arts college in the middle of the worst part of the recession included. I survived all those things. I am incredibly optimistic and passionate about the startup I'm working on. But the part of me that worries feels like: if it doesn't work out it will be horrifying but it's a challenge I can handle because I've handled all those other things.
My hunch is that if the OP feels the way he describes he needs to explore his relationship to failure and uncertainty and figure out how he can better handle those experiences.
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#126You're probably like me...you know exactly what you're going to do but you need someone else to tell you (it feels a lot better that way, doesn't it?) - so here it is take it from the legend himself Steve Jobs - he said persistence is what separates a successful entrepreneur from an unsuccessful entrepreneur...failure isn't an option, really that's why each time they ask us. How's it going? We say great!
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He absolutely did not teach people that it's possible to eliminate suffering while alive Did the Buddha teach the Four Noble Truths? The third noble truth about the "cessation of suffering and the causes of suffering". How can what you say be true then?
The contents of those scriptures have been retranslated countless times. Besides this fact, they were only written down about 500 years after Gautama Buddha died. Third, the words that were written down were those as transmitted by ordinary people, who had a huge gap in level of consciousness between them and Buddha, so they didn't understand exactly and didn't write down Buddha's exact words. And fourth, the scriptu…
Thanks for the reply. I'm still not convinced. Yes it's possible that the scriptures are inaccurate. What source do you pull your reasoning from and what makes your source more accurate.
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#128The thing that makes me most sad about this is that you're beating yourself up for losing investor's money.
Let me tell you - the investors are entering the arrangement knowing that they have a 90% chance of failure. That's why they want deals that might give them a 10x return on their investment and they turn down "lifestyle" business that might return a meager 8% year over year.
It's great that you obviously care about your investors. But you should feel just about as bad over them losing their money as a gas station should feel when people lose a dollar buying a lotto ticket.
They made the decision to play the game, knowing full well there was a higher likelihood of failure than success.
Best of luck to you as you'll inevitably build something else.
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#129There is no shame in failure. There will be plenty of life to look forward to, for you and your investors, after your 2 months are up. Go on to greater and better things.
Many great entrepreneurs failed many times before ultimately succeeding. Even a successful company goes on to a constant stream of failures, with enough successes in the mix to come out a net positive. This is true of Amazon, Google, and all the rest.
A Churchill quote comes to mind. "Success is never final, failure is never fatal. The important thing is to never, never, give up".
Re: The Truth about a Failing Startup
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He absolutely did not teach people that it's possible to eliminate suffering while alive Did the Buddha teach the Four Noble Truths? The third noble truth about the "cessation of suffering and the causes of suffering". How can what you say be true then?
The contents of those scriptures have been retranslated countless times. Besides this fact, they were only written down about 500 years after Gautama Buddha died. Third, the words that were written down were those as transmitted by ordinary people, who had a huge gap in level of consciousness between them and Buddha, so they didn't understand exactly and didn't write down Buddha's exact words. And fourth, the scriptu…
People regularly differ in interpretations and see what they want to see, in any great writing or teaching, regardless of what the writer may have been trying to speak to.
In other words, one person's dominant world viewpoint is not everyone elses, and that's perfectly ok.
For example, for me, trying to understand spirituality/meditation with the mind, is like trying to be a know it all about swimming by studying, watching, and discussing swimming without jumping in the water. True teachings of any kind in my mind are meant to teach one to lead themselves through whatever comes up. Then again, I'm pretty anti-dogmatic, ritualistic but still maintain some mindful disciplines to keep my attention where I want.
See how I said something so personal to me but it might not mean anything to anyone until they've done the equivalent in their own way?