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The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

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Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#21

Post by Swizec »

drone wrote: post #11
Swizec wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are more lawyers than there are lawyering jobs. All the lawyer people I know are complaining and many are closing their offices because they can't get enough clients. Doctors can't get jobs because so many people are vying for the same jobs it's difficult to even get a specialty. Nobody will hire you without a specialty. Retail ... yeah, you're competing with everyone from high school students to college grads…

Europe isn't the only place to be a doctor or construction worker, ya know? Pretty much any doctor worth their salt can get a job in the US (we have a shortage of medical professionals) -- in fact, consider also RN's, hospitals have been putting out massive recruiting campaigns for RNs. Construction is booming here as well, depending on the region of course, but there is more construction work going around these days…

Perspective really does depend on location.

But I have a few friends who study medicine and they've all told me it's near impossible to get a job as a doctor because it's near impossible to get a specialty and nobody needs you without a specialty. All the while, the media has been blasting me with news of a humongous shortage of medical professionals - doctors in particular.

Partly the difficult in getting a specialty is caused by the shortage of doctors because there aren't enough to train everyone who wants to become a doctor.

It's a mess.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#22

Post by efuquen »

In terms of what you said about risk, I think most of the time when people talk about a startup being a risk what they mean is that the business itself is risky, that it's most likely going to fail. While sometimes it might be the case most of the time I don't think people are talking about any personal or financial risk to the founders, though that's just my perception and what I've always understood it to be meant when people talked about risk in a startup. Of course, a founder can definitely take on some personal or financial risk in a startup but I've rarely seen or heard of cases like that, when we talk about startups most of the time we talk about some sortof VC funded entity. Although plenty of small businesses are funded by the business owner, but most small businesses aren't really "startups" either.

Finally, there is the risk of failure to the founders, which can be quite demoralizing and possibly personally devastating, especially if it's the first time. I think how much a failure would impact someone just depends on their personality and how easily they can mentally move on, even if it didn't have any major financial impact. I mean, it is quite a bit of time and effort that could be wasted on something that ultimately fails; unless you view it as a learning experience and draw the right lessons and are able to move on to the next thing, whether it's another startup or more stable employment at a company that already went through the risky phase and won.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#23

Post by jacquesm »

myke_cameron wrote: post #20
Swizec wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are more lawyers than there are lawyering jobs. All the lawyer people I know are complaining and many are closing their offices because they can't get enough clients. Doctors can't get jobs because so many people are vying for the same jobs it's difficult to even get a specialty. Nobody will hire you without a specialty. Retail ... yeah, you're competing with everyone from high school students to college grads…

_Doctors can't get jobs because so many people are vying for the same jobs it's difficult to even get a specialty. Nobody will hire you without a specialty._ Source? There is a huge demand for primary care doctors right now ( source: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-06/national/41812... ), and anecdotally, I work for a company that runs primary care practices and we recently hired a recruiter because we are…

At a guess, you and Swizec are not in the same location.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#25

Post by kokey »

Many aspects of this post somehow resonated with me. I spent many years in corporate employment because I don't have any backup options. I also feel like I've wasted some time where others learn more about business the hard way. I'm now part of a startup, after my last jobs were with banks, and I believe the route from startup to corporate or the other way around can lead to a similar destination. The only difference is what experience you bring to the table, and a wider range of it is better for everyone.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#26

Post by bchjam »

Studies have shown that people are much happier when they're doing self-directed work.

I also think that lamenting losing talent to a bank might have more to do with the perceived negative value that modern banks bring to humanity.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#27

Post by oinksoft »

jasonkester wrote: post #10

The cool thing about starting your own business is that you can build it however you like. You can work 80 hour weeks or 10 hour weeks. Your choice. You can neglect your friends, family and health, and work yourself into the ground. Or not. Again, entirely up to you. Surprisingly, the end result will probably be roughly the same. If you're good at building software, and work in bursts like most of us do, then a few g…

Building a business is very hard work. Some people can pull it off working few hours a week, but the majority will tend towards the 60-80 hours and be able to eventually taper that if they're lucky.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#28

Post by hyperpape »

skrebbel wrote: post #18
harrisonweber wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you're highlighting is the difference between startups and small businesses.

Right. So a startup has to be about working 80 hours a week or it's not a startup?

The term "startup" doesn't intrinsically say anything about a business other than that it's new. But the discussion about "startups" on HN and in the popular press assumes it means 1) long hours 2) a bunch of young guys 3) aiming at extremely rapid growth (often measured by users, regardless of revenue)

It's probably a losing battle trying to and change that use. If the shoe fits, call it a startup, otherwise just use consulting business, small-business, or whatever other term describes it. It's not like you're losing out on something by not calling a web development shop a startup.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#29

Post by kghose »

jacquesm wrote: post #13
jasonkester wrote: post #10

The cool thing about starting your own business is that you can build it however you like. You can work 80 hour weeks or 10 hour weeks. Your choice. You can neglect your friends, family and health, and work yourself into the ground. Or not. Again, entirely up to you. Surprisingly, the end result will probably be roughly the same. If you're good at building software, and work in bursts like most of us do, then a few g…

The freedom is indeed one of the biggest draws but I've found that with any degree of success there is also an automatic reduction in freedom because your responsibilities go up. Hard to balance that.

This is a pretty insightful statement. I would modify that a little bit from 'success' to advancement. In academia you non-academic duties increase as you advance. I've seen a handful of people pull things off such that they have a small lab and don't put in for promotion (they stay associate or instructor). They trade pay for less management duties.

Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone

#30

Post by harrisonweber »

skrebbel wrote: post #18
harrisonweber wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you're highlighting is the difference between startups and small businesses.

Right. So a startup has to be about working 80 hours a week or it's not a startup?

No, but a startup is a company designed to grow into something much larger very quickly — that (historically) requires a massive amount of work. Small businesses can require 80 hours a week too, but they traditionally serve a much smaller segment of the population.
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