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Building a company is fucking hard

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Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#121
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree with you, and was going to comment the same. Perhaps at 22 you don't have the full perspective of what life can be. I certainly didn't at that age (now I'm 41 and I guess I have a better perspective for sure).

> Perhaps at 22 you don't have the full perspective of what life can be. It's hard to believe that one has the full perspective at any age.

I think this is highly dependent on the context you are in. An Italian friend of mine lived for a year in a tiny fisherman community isolated in an island in northern Brazil a decade ago. He told me that after a couple of months we got this full perspective of things as he knew 100% of people, their pains and joys, dreams and realities.

Looking at the other side of the spectrum, what are the chances of an immigrant to achieve the same level of perspective after living for a year in Manhattan?

I believe it is a more productive -- and joyful -- exercise to think about the role you want to have in the context you belong to.

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#122
I applaud the kid for taking the jump into entrepreneurship at a young age. The one thing I think young entrepreneurs like him make is never working in industry/corporate/working for multiple startups before they start their own. You need to walk before you run. Its like apprenticeship, you go to a company/companies and learn how processes work, learn what efficiency means, learn how decisions get made, learn different ways of management or how different CEO's run a company, etc. I wish the OP best of luck, dont get to down in the dumps, you are only 22 and have already had an acquisition, and employed 15 people!

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#123
post #66

Not dissing the general message. Startups can be brutal, but still. Dude is 22 and claims having seen more hardship than others. Try dealing with raising kids, health issues, sick family members, dying friends, mid life (all of which will probably happen as you near the age 40) and a startup will look like a pleasant distraction from the actual hard stuff in life. I,d say enjoy being 22, don’t take yourself to seriou…

While you state it in a more rational way, many of the responses dismiss what OP has to say just because he is 22. As somebody who is 22 as well—everybody is facing a struggle here. The market does not care that we are 22, it is equally brutal to both of us. Also, I agree that raising kids may be something that is more difficult that you additionally have to do (all the other things have no correlation with age), but…

> Also, I agree that raising kids may be something that is more difficult that you additionally have to do (all the other things have no correlation with age), but some of the replies here come off to me like that one jacked dude in the gym giving the newbies stick for being weak. At their current musculature, they are doing the best they can. Difficulty levels are relative.

The author picked the fight. People are dismissing what he's saying because writing that makes him come across as self-aggrandising. As a result, people are making a judgement call that the guy probably doesn't have much to offer.

To continue with your gym analogy, it's like some weedy guy walking into a gym and telling all the jacked guys that they're exercising wrong and he can teach them better form. That may in fact be true - being able to teach form doesn't require you to be jacked, and vice versa. But more than likely this person is talking out their ass.

I'm 23 and when I read that sentence it totally turned me off the article, the author seemed like a tool, and I completely agree with all the 30-40 yr olds in this thread saying the same thing.

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#124

I don’t find the problem of creating a company to be an interesting benchmark of discussion. Why aren’t we talking about creating ethical companies and how to make it easier for companies to not seek to be corrupt, or set up barriers to corruption that are more verifiably not manipulable by those already with wealth or power? I can’t see how any other angle of discussion about creating companies can be worth anyone’s…

Could you give some insight into young companies/startups that are not seeking to ethical or are corrupt? That seems like a super broad statement.

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#125
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree with you, and was going to comment the same. Perhaps at 22 you don't have the full perspective of what life can be. I certainly didn't at that age (now I'm 41 and I guess I have a better perspective for sure).

> Perhaps at 22 you don't have the full perspective of what life can be. It's hard to believe that one has the full perspective at any age.

This reminded me of a pretty neat but lighthearted video: How to Age Gracefully [1] (4m40s).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycgL3Qg_Ak

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#126
post #66

Not dissing the general message. Startups can be brutal, but still. Dude is 22 and claims having seen more hardship than others. Try dealing with raising kids, health issues, sick family members, dying friends, mid life (all of which will probably happen as you near the age 40) and a startup will look like a pleasant distraction from the actual hard stuff in life. I,d say enjoy being 22, don’t take yourself to seriou…

Sometimes it comes all at once! A friend of mine was building a startup, having kids, dealing with a sick mother and being middle-aged all at the same time.

> and being middle-aged

The rest I could take, but middle-aged? Truly hell.

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#127
post #66

Not dissing the general message. Startups can be brutal, but still. Dude is 22 and claims having seen more hardship than others. Try dealing with raising kids, health issues, sick family members, dying friends, mid life (all of which will probably happen as you near the age 40) and a startup will look like a pleasant distraction from the actual hard stuff in life. I,d say enjoy being 22, don’t take yourself to seriou…

I totally agree. I was 35 when I worked for a start-up, by that time I didn't have kids, health issues, sick family members nor midlife crisis. Work side of life was tough but rewarding at the same time. Lots of pressure, but I could smile in the end of the day.

Now I am a managing partner in 3 companies and have all the issues above. Work is ok, manageable, but the personal issues are REALLY hard to cope with, specially the irreversible ones related to aging and health.

It the past, resilience was a key attitude to me. Nowadays I see acceptance as being more important.

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#128
post #66

Not dissing the general message. Startups can be brutal, but still. Dude is 22 and claims having seen more hardship than others. Try dealing with raising kids, health issues, sick family members, dying friends, mid life (all of which will probably happen as you near the age 40) and a startup will look like a pleasant distraction from the actual hard stuff in life. I,d say enjoy being 22, don’t take yourself to seriou…

> Dude is 22

Ah, that explains the unnecessary and distracting showing off by swearing in the title.

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#129
post #15

> I have yet experienced more in these four years than most people do in all of their lives. Lol, hearing that from a 22 year old.

It calls to mind Bo Burnhan, poet laureate of this YouTube generation:

"We all deserve love,

it's the very best part of being alive

And I would know

I just turned 25"

https://genius.com/Bo-burnham-lower-your-expectations-if-you...

Re: Building a company is fucking hard

#130
post #15

> I have yet experienced more in these four years than most people do in all of their lives. Lol, hearing that from a 22 year old.

In fairness, I feel like I had more formative experiences between 16-20 than I have since (35). Young adulthood tends to be eventful and formative in a way people's 30s usually aren't. Throw in entrepreneurship... It's not that far fetched.

Even if so, that's not what the OP claimed. The OP claimed that his 18-22 was more eventful than most peoples 22-35 AND ALSO 16-20 combined
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