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I'm 23, An Entrepreneur, and Fucking Terrified.

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Re: I'm 23, An Entrepreneur, and Fucking Terrified.

#11

Post by epa »

If you are really going to devote 100% of your time you can't have this mentality. Typical white, wealthy, suburban nerd who identified himself by his possessions and not by his accomplishments. To be an entrepreneur you have to be fearless, you need to realize the risk and mitigate, you need to identify your weakness and strengthen it. Enough of this I have everything and im scared of losing it mentality, stop crying, you will be fine.

An entrepreneur must have heart and passion. If you have time to think about these things your not busy enough. Focus on your business and the problems your business faces. YOU are the business. you life should be the business. Your personal problems don't matter. run and don't look back. Do not compare yourself to anyone but your competitors. Be strong, live on.

Re: I'm 23, An Entrepreneur, and Fucking Terrified.

#12

Post by visakanv »

I relate to you a lot, so if I'm harsh towards you I'm really just being harsh to myself.

You're not really saying anything. You're describing your emotional state, but that's it. You say you're afraid, but you're not actually getting to the root of your fear. Sure, you don't want mediocrity. Who does, anyway? (Rhetorical question.)

Is this just a pep-talk? If so, all the best to you, live long and prosper, focus, work hard, all that good stuff. But I have a feeling that you have something you want to be addressing, but you're not actually doing it.

I'm 23 too. I'm married to my childhood sweetheart and we have a home. I have a great job doing marketing in a tech firm. Her heart's desire is to travel. I'd like to take her around the world, and write novels and essays about whatever MY heart desires. But I too have bills to pay (and my job's awesome, anyway, so what's my problem?) And I too am afraid that my ambitions and vision for myself and reality might not be easy to swallow, and/or that I might hurt people along the way. I've already cut ties with some of my closest friends.

Here's a guess that's going to sound a little pessimistic, but it's just a guess and I could be totally wrong, and it's more about me than it is about you- but I think you're going to find yourself returning to this exact same position several times.

Not sure why I'm writing this, being messy and jumbled and all, but it's probably the same reason why you wrote your post. So, uh, here it is.

Life's crazy. You're crazy. I'm crazy. Cheers to that. Once you're done analysing and reviewing your emotional state, though, don't forget to get around to doing the work- because that's what actually matters, and that's what people will actually want to read about, pay you for, etc. That's the real legacy you'll build.

Re: I'm 23, An Entrepreneur, and Fucking Terrified.

#13

Post by unreal37 »

ironchef wrote: post #9

What's wrong with 9 to 5ing, learning more, and doing your own thing on your own time for a while. There's NOTHING wrong with that. Don't buy into the romantic notion that you have to give 110% to your startup or it's not worth doing. Pragmatism is ok. Pragmatism is not mediocrity. Don't confuse the two. There's a lot of hyperbole and rhetoric in the startup world. Don't buy into it. Plenty of startups have been laun…

And there's got to be a middle ground, where you could earn some income reliably (freelancing part-time) without being a 9-5'er. 90% business, 10% working for someone else to pay the bills.

Re: I'm 23, An Entrepreneur, and Fucking Terrified.

#16

Post by fein »

ironchef wrote: post #9

What's wrong with 9 to 5ing, learning more, and doing your own thing on your own time for a while. There's NOTHING wrong with that. Don't buy into the romantic notion that you have to give 110% to your startup or it's not worth doing. Pragmatism is ok. Pragmatism is not mediocrity. Don't confuse the two. There's a lot of hyperbole and rhetoric in the startup world. Don't buy into it. Plenty of startups have been laun…

I'm 26, work a 9-5, then do freelance work in my spare time.

It's heaven. I have 3 jobs right now, one of which is a full time salaried gig with benefits, and the other two are moderate contract positions that I work in my spare time.

There is no stagnation here. I code on easy stuff at work all day, then go home and explore technologies that a BigCo will never use. Down the road when looking for another job, there just won't be big roadblocks, just a massive list of code and projects completed.

Re: I'm 23, An Entrepreneur, and Fucking Terrified.

#17

Post by untog »

I don't like judging people based on their age. It seems like a really blunt instrument that unfairly groups people together who do not belong there. But as someone who is only just pushing 30, I can say that you are talking the same kind of nonsense I did in my early 20s.

"To all of the people who say that the best thing to do is get a good job, buy a nice house, and to put the max into a 401k that the company will match: Fuck you. It’s not what I want. Mediocrity is worse than failure."

Mediocrity is not worse than failure. Try being homeless. Except when you say 'failure' you mean "maybe I'll have to move back in with my parents". You have an enormous safety net allowing you to be so disdainful of "mediocrity", don't take it for granted.

Stop romanticising driving yourself into the ground. Stop thinking you are better than your peers that have "sold out" by taking (gasp) jobs. It sounds like you've lived life very much on your own terms until now, but life doesn't work that way indefinitely. At some point you have to make compromises in order to achieve what you want. Deal with it.

Take a job as a developer. You'll make good money. Make sure it isn't for a demanding startup. Something that guarantees exiting the office at 5pm every day. Then go home and work on your startup. Plough your free time into your startup, and when you have enough of a ramp you can quit your day job and transition to the startup full time.

You are not a unique butterfly that is owed the opportunity to only ever do exactly what you want.

Re: I'm 23, An Entrepreneur, and Fucking Terrified.

#18

Post by Xcelerate »

camworld wrote: post #4

I'm not sure I see the fucking point of using fucking swear words.

Normally I don't upvote posts like yours but I did here. I'm not sure why every article on Medium (that I see posted on HN) has to have that word in the title. Eventually it just loses its impact. Maybe it's to grab attention, but then I would say more thought needs to go into the headline anyway.
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