31–40 of 83 posts
Everybody so far is commenting on the woman who approached the CEO. Let's not forget the CEO, who committed and risked resources on a hunch or instinct or who-knows-what. If I had to pick one of the two to ask how they had the nerve to act and to learn from, I'd pick him. (Of course I'd prefer both and not to belittle her gumption and skills to back it up). - What did he see to suggest risking those resources? ... To…
Although, I appreciate that the designer took his offer seriously. More importantly, it's the guts of a founder in this case that made it happen.
I hate this self empowerment bullshit. Do people have any idea what this sounds like to people with actual, real problems? Your life can't be solved by positive thinking and being impulsive. In fact, I can make a very good case that that kind of attitude will create far more problems than it solves. Hell, I'm sure I could come up with _two_ anecdotes, which is already twice the evidence given by this blog post.
This same idea can be applied to self-empowerment and it works for people. Just because it's cheesy doesn't mean it doesn't work. I mean, even knowing you're taking a placebo can still lead to positive outcomes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The failure rate for those who don't try is 100%.
But what if the failure rate for those who do try is 99%? Trying isn't always zero-risk... I wonder if ambition could be subject to a cost/benefit analysis, haha. At some point I suppose you just have to let go of the numbers.
Trying is never zero-risk but not trying is always 100% risk of failure.
The bigger the risk the bigger the reward usually, that's how capitalism works.
Work a 9-to-5 at a safe company, make a nice salary, have little risk
Work a 9-to-7 at a startup, make less money but have equity, have more risk of the company going under but have a bigger shot at reward
Start your own company, have no salary but 100% equity, risk being homeless, reward being a billionaire
Every choice you make is a risk-reward calculation and you have to decide what's important to you and whether it's worth risking for a bigger reward.
Everybody so far is commenting on the woman who approached the CEO. Let's not forget the CEO, who committed and risked resources on a hunch or instinct or who-knows-what. If I had to pick one of the two to ask how they had the nerve to act and to learn from, I'd pick him. (Of course I'd prefer both and not to belittle her gumption and skills to back it up). - What did he see to suggest risking those resources? ... To…
That is the lesson I am going to take away. Ideas matter, but if execution is the thing you can change, then embrace the people that tell you your execution sucks and have ideas.
I've been kind of struggling lately with this sort of inspirational attitude. It seems like a good attitude, but it also comes with this hidden assumption: if you try hard and keep at it, there's a good chance you'll succeed. Is this actually true? I mean I want it to be true. I'd like to live in a world where it's true. But I don't actually have any hard evidence besides the testimonials of people who have found suc…
Other Factors can include but are not limited to: having the right contacts, being in the right place at the right time, having a unique insight into the market, etc. Looking at a list like that might be dispiriting because the items all appear to be frustratingly correlated with random chance. And that's partly true. But what is also true, is that doing certain kinds of work often has the interesting side-effect of raising your chances for bumping into one of those other factors. Which is what you were saying above.
For example, working hard in, and paying attention to business in a given industry for a while might a) Give you insight into how something might be done better, and b) introduce you to people working in that industry who could help you out by b1) teaching you more about it, b2) directing you to others who can, b3) becoming a collaborator with you, or b4) pointing you to capital resources interested in solving relevant problems.
I mean, yeah in the end, in business you're likely to fail. Most businesses fail. Most people who have the right attitude and do the requisite work fail. But you can't get to the top of the mountain without hiking.
Everybody so far is commenting on the woman who approached the CEO. Let's not forget the CEO, who committed and risked resources on a hunch or instinct or who-knows-what. If I had to pick one of the two to ask how they had the nerve to act and to learn from, I'd pick him. (Of course I'd prefer both and not to belittle her gumption and skills to back it up). - What did he see to suggest risking those resources? ... To…
As a founder, I am always looking for that combination in my users.
The bonus was offering herself as the solution. I'll venture that his decision was made even before she finished the sentence.
I've been kind of struggling lately with this sort of inspirational attitude. It seems like a good attitude, but it also comes with this hidden assumption: if you try hard and keep at it, there's a good chance you'll succeed. Is this actually true? I mean I want it to be true. I'd like to live in a world where it's true. But I don't actually have any hard evidence besides the testimonials of people who have found suc…
Depends on what you mean by "good chance" obviously. And "succeed".
"accurate picture of how one can become successful."
I looked at your website from your profile.
Being successful at the "creative" things you are good at would be much more difficult than some of the other less creative things you have listed.
There are (from my observation and I believe this is common knowledge) many people who have really good creative skills in music, art, acting etc and no where near enough opportunities for those people to make a good career out of it. In that case the hustle is probably even more important than the skill level (not that that's not important). But even with hustle it can be random. And there are many people hustling to get ahead. You aren't competing with people to get a job as a dental hygienist who really isn't super into their job, right? Some of your competitors are really totally over the top in their commitment to doing what you want to do. They aren't phoning it in or anything.
Like with dating or landing a job you only have to be right one time (well assuming you find "the right one").
Not like selling where you have to find a certain number of sales per time period. So you have to assess how much time and effort it takes to get a sale and extrapolate.