Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: and now what?

news.ycombinator.com

11–20 of 93 posts

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#11
post #3

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get a full time job. You need to accept that you're not good enough to start your own company. It's okay, there are millions of people like you, like me and most people on HN. Take a break, go on a vacation, and recharge your batteries. You have the skills to have a well-paid job, and a great life. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth just because you had a failed dream of being a…

Good enough don't enter into it--luck more than anything.

The wrong product at the right time can help you laugh all the way to the bank, while the perfect product when nobody is buying will languish in obscurity.

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#12
post #3

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get a full time job. You need to accept that you're not good enough to start your own company. It's okay, there are millions of people like you, like me and most people on HN. Take a break, go on a vacation, and recharge your batteries. You have the skills to have a well-paid job, and a great life. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth just because you had a failed dream of being a…

"need to accept that you're not good enough ..." - Are you kidding? 1) Dont ever put someone down like that 2) Just because you are a quitter doesn't mean other people are.

Thank the heavens all the great men and woman who pushed through failure after failure before their success made a dent in this world don't think like you

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#14
Is English your second language? Maybe the informal nature of forums brings this out but your grammar is pretty poor and for better or worse, English grammar has quite a bit to do with how people perceive us as individuals.

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#15
You wrote " I think all those failures killed me and now I'm lost". Which sounds like you need a good vacation in another culture to me. Go camping if you are on a tight budget. Leave the screen behind for a while and see the world around you.

After the rest, I would suggest that you work on a problem of personal interest to you. Not a problem that you think someone else might have a need for, but a problem that YOU are the person who has a need for it. There are still an uncountable number of problems in the world to solve.

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#16
post #5

Take a six month break from everything. Come back and kick ass.

This advise should be the top-voted comment. Because this really works, all the time. If only the OP gave this a shot..

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#17
I'm desperate.

You may think you're desperate, but you're not. Keep reading...

I'm almost 38. Start programming at 10. Spent 7 years in video game industry as programmer, project manager, CTO.

None of that matters. Today is Day 0.

I tried during 5 years to create a "startup".

You don't "create a startup". You supply solutions to other people's problems. When you do that properly, a "startup" is often the byproduct. Focus on their needs, not yours, and allow the "startup" to evolve to what it should become instead of pushing some preconceived notion.

I still have a half time job that pay the bill and give me enough time to create something.

That's great! Fantastic, in fact. You have the best of all world's: enough income, enough time, and enough connections to other things and people to supply yourself with plenty of demands to supply. You're ahead of 95% of others already. So please stop feeling "desperate" and harness the excellent position you're already in.

During these 5 years I created a game, a tool for geeks, a B2B project and lot of more things. I created some projects alone, with CEO partners, CTO partners. Each time, I have no traction, negative feedback, I demotivating and then I stop the project.

a. Focus on what someone else needs. b. Limit the number of others and needs to streamline that focus. c. Work alone as long as you can. You may surprise yourself at how much you can accomplish.

I read too much about pretotyping, MVP, lean startup, marketing.

Then stop reading and start doing. When you reach the point where you don't know how to do something that you must do, then reach for help, reading or otherwise, but not before then. Allow yourself to be pulled by your customer's demands, not pushed by what you think you should be doing.

Now I don't even know what to do.

Find a customer.

All ideas I have seems already made by someone else, and often better than I planned to do them.

That's a good thing! You want other people's great ideas. It's your execution, not their idea, that will be your key to success.

Each partners I meet seems too newbie to work with.

Then work alone and learn what you have do when you need to.

It's horrible because I have time and skills to do lot of things but nothing motivate me anymore.

That's because you're too focused on yourself, and not enough on others. Concentrate on satisfying someone else's needs by supplying something excellent. That's almost always enough motivation. You'll see.

I think all those failures killed me and now I'm lost. What a waste.

They weren't failures, but necessary learning experiences to get where you are now. Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, and Colonel Saunders all "failed" many more times than you have before they succeeded. And each one of them would tell you that those "failures" were necessary but not sufficient for success.

Take a deep breath, get rid of you're stinkin' thinkin', regroup, find a customer, and build something great. We both know you can do it. Best wishes.

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#18
What lessons and mistakes did you learn in these 5 years? Have you been avoiding them after they happened? Technical skills do not seem to be the problem here. If you can't gain traction, you probably aren't building products for your right audience. Were your attempts those SV types that try to go for it big targeting consumers? You may want to try the micropreneur route championed by Patrick McKenzie, Rob Walling, and Amy Hoy. If you already are, you may want to ask them for advice. If all things fail, what about write a book teaching others what you know and learn? If no one buys your book, can you try to teach more with your blog first?

Maybe you aim too big to begin. Why not set a much smaller goal, achieve that first so you feel good about yourselves. Then use that positive energy to fuel your journey forward.

Don't give up on your dream. If you do, how many more years do you have to wonder what ifs and swallow your pride working at a job you don't like.

You already pull in enough to pay the bills, so there is no worries. Try again. You can always find a contract to pay the bills again.

Whatever your mind can conceive, you can achieve.

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#19
We have some things in common - I'm 37 and started programming aged 9. I also got very burnt out, without realizing it, and then tried to start a bunch of "startups" without recovering properly.

I took about six months of very minimal contract programming work, at the same time as doing a lot of physical work on a "fixer-upper" house my wife and I bought in a cheap area. Then I settled on a project which I hope will turn into a startup, but which I'd be completely happy just working on anyway even if it never turns into a business - I'm just that interested in it. Consulting is still there to pay the bills.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: and now what?

#20
Take time off and recharge. You'll be able to spot solutions to problems easier if you're not under pressure. Sort of like when couples try very hard to get pregnant and can't. Just take a break for a while, get interested in something, focus inward on yourself (physically and spiritually) and the ideas will come. Also read this: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/03/10-things-you-need-to-d...

And don't forget even startups created by people with lots and lots of money and huge successes in the past screw up trying to make things too. (Airtime)

Post reply on HN