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Survive and Thrive

justinkan.com

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Re: Survive and Thrive

#21

Post by [deleted] »

siberianbear wrote: post #20
nostrademons wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's impossible, it's only because few people have the psychological makeup to delay gratification for years. The most surefire way to be able to spend 5 years working on a project that isn't profitable is to spend 5 years saving 50% of your salary. How do you save 50% of your income for 5 years? Get a job paying double the median income (~80th percentile [1]) and live like the median person. Or get a job paying a…

And if you keep that up long enough, you can just retire. I retired at the age of 40 by saving about 70% of my take-home salary as a manager of a group of engineers in Silicon Valley. I will never go back to a cubicle in Silicon Valley. Never.

[deleted]

Re: Survive and Thrive

#22

Post by ak39 »

gkoberger wrote: post #3
dk8996 wrote: post #2

In before "survivorship bias". In any case, it's amazing that so many successful companies were in that building.

"Survive" is the one bit of advice that, by definition, is immune to survivorship bias. Basically, Justin is saying "the ones that survived are the ones that survived". It's stating the painfully obvious, however it's a simple contrast to the normal "strategic" advice. Paul Graham writes about this a lot: http://paulgraham.com/aord.html http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html http://paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html

Thanks for this. That PG article was sobering for me. All the while reading it, I had Shawshank's "Get busy living or get busy dying" playing in my head. :-(

Re: Survive and Thrive

#23

Post by ivan_burazin »

lquist wrote: post #15
svisser wrote: post #4

"I deeply believe that if three recent college grads (and one dropout) could turn an online reality tv show into a billion dollar company then literally anyone can be successful online." There are so many things wrong with drawing that conclusion.

No there really isn't. Justin is getting at a truth about startups: "If you can just avoid dying, you get rich." Paul Graham wrote that 8 years ago ( http://paulgraham.com/die.html ), and I wonder if it was (subconsciously?) an inspiration to this post by Justin? My guess is that it's actually more likely that Justin feels this truth intuitively. I believe that this is a truth that is so fundamental to startups that…

I totally agree with the post, but it goes beyond just startups it applies to anything you are trying to achieve in life.

Are you trying to; learn to play the piano, climb a mountain, loose weight, be a racer car driver and so on? It pretty much applies to anything that you are trying to achieve where the obstacle is just you. If you just survive, just do it for one more day. Just one more....everyday, you will succeed.

I heard Justin talk about this at a conference a couple of years ago and it's one of the few pieces of advice I have taken to heart.

Re: Survive and Thrive

#24

Post by staunch »

nostrademons wrote: post #16
staunch wrote: post #5

> What each of the companies had in common was that they built something that was useful, created a feedback loop of getting user feedback and iterating on the product, and kept at their startups long enough for the market they were in to mature. > I deeply believe that if three recent college grads (and one dropout) could turn an online reality tv show into a billion dollar company then literally anyone can be succe…

If it's impossible, it's only because few people have the psychological makeup to delay gratification for years. The most surefire way to be able to spend 5 years working on a project that isn't profitable is to spend 5 years saving 50% of your salary. How do you save 50% of your income for 5 years? Get a job paying double the median income (~80th percentile [1]) and live like the median person. Or get a job paying a…

Some people can pull this off. Most people can't save 50% of their household income. Very few people with families can follow this advice, and that's a lot of good people.

Re: Survive and Thrive

#25

Post by justin »

sytelus wrote: post #19
lquist wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No there really isn't. Justin is getting at a truth about startups: "If you can just avoid dying, you get rich." Paul Graham wrote that 8 years ago ( http://paulgraham.com/die.html ), and I wonder if it was (subconsciously?) an inspiration to this post by Justin? My guess is that it's actually more likely that Justin feels this truth intuitively. I believe that this is a truth that is so fundamental to startups that…

Not dieing is ofcourse the key which is where the luck must kick in big time. I think most startup don't die because founders give up but rather because there are no real options left, just strong desire for not dieing is not enough. One key thing Justin mentions is being in growth market. What if you realize after 5 years that your user base for purple coat wearing alternate movie lovers isn't a growth market? The n…

Justin.tv was not on the verge of folding when we pivoted to Twitch, in fact, we achieved profitability the year before.
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