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What being ripped off taught me

belief.horse

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Re: What being ripped off taught me

#201

Post by marcus_holmes »

tombert wrote: post #160
avoidyc wrote: post #57

[flagged]

Back in 2015 I worked for a startup. I turned down a job at a more stable company because this startup had me doing Erlang and I really wanted to work with that. The job worked fine for about six months, and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something…

During my MBA we were taught about the FedEx founding story [0].

The founder of FedEx got low on cash. So he took all the remaining cash (including what he owed in payroll) to Vegas and gambled it. And won, and paid his staff, and the rest is history.

We were taught that this was a great example of "entrepreneurial hustle". I was horrified.

How many founders copied this lesson? How many employees couldn't pay their mortgages because the CEO had learned the wrong lesson from this story?

This kind of nightmare irresponsibility needs to be punished, not glorified.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx_Express: "However, the company began to experience financial difficulties, losing up to a million USD a month. While waiting for a flight home to Memphis from Chicago after being turned down for capital by General Dynamics, Smith impulsively hopped on a flight to Las Vegas, where he won $27,000 playing blackjack. The winnings enabled the cash-strapped company to meet payroll the following Monday. "

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#202

Post by necovek »

cortesoft wrote: post #151
Aurornis wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The weirdest part to me, receive a call and just get up and go? Priorities? The author does contracting in niche topics. When your contracting domain is uncommon you have to go where the work is. You can charge higher prices for niche work and therefore tolerate more time in between contracts. This person may be spending more time not working and with his family than the typical FTE in this arrangement, even if the…

It sounds like he has a lot of general skills, too. I guess we all have different priorities, but I would work whatever job to not have to leave my kid for that long.

Kid will be fine, mom will be fine, dad will be fine — a month does sound long, but it depends more on what attention you provide when you are with your partner and kids.

Sounds like he is in there 24/7 most likely spending more time than you or me with his kid over the course of the year (if you are in a regular 9-5 type of role with limited PTO) — or he'd not even mention missing a month with his 2yo.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#203

Post by necovek »

noident wrote: post #91
notquitebuddy wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot the middleground where there are thousands of laid off people who can do your exact job and undercut you etc. These founders hire/fire through hundreds of us, they don't give a shit. If you say 1 thing they don't like they go to the next.

How many of those people have experience with augmented reality? Probably not that many. $35k seems pretty low for this job. Hindsight is 20/20 of course.

As 75% of a single month fee (25% paid upfront), not too bad either: $46k in total for 4 weeks of work. Expenses were not included (flight was paid for).

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#205

Post by beede »

doctorhandshake wrote: post #69
QuarterReptile wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think OP needed "emergency service is cash up front". In a different domain, this is the painful lesson of almost anyone who tries to help people in a bind -- you can try to help, but yours is unlikely to be the advice that sets them straight, so you shouldn't get too invested with unproven or, especially, proven unreliable actors.

>> "emergency service is cash up front“ Neatly distilled I believe you are correct

This brilliantly captures what I see from YouTubers who do off-road vehicle recovery. People are super nice until the bill comes, then you learn “only release the vehicle on payment.”

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#206

Post by tombert »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #201
tombert wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2015 I worked for a startup. I turned down a job at a more stable company because this startup had me doing Erlang and I really wanted to work with that. The job worked fine for about six months, and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something…

During my MBA we were taught about the FedEx founding story [0]. The founder of FedEx got low on cash. So he took all the remaining cash (including what he owed in payroll) to Vegas and gambled it. And won, and paid his staff, and the rest is history. We were taught that this was a great example of "entrepreneurial hustle". I was horrified. How many founders copied this lesson? How many employees couldn't pay their m…

I've heard that story, though I always kind of thought it sounded like bullshit. Obviously I have no way to prove that, I guess I'm just usually skeptical of gamblers bragging about their big winnings.

But yeah, even if it is true, then it's hardly a good lesson. "CEO took all remaining money to Vegas" isn't exactly something to idolize.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#207

Post by dataflow »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #166

Author - I don't think you learned the correct lessons here. The most important thing is that you weren't "ripped off" - you were taken advantage of. Ripped off is when you buy a TV that's supposed to work and it doesn't. Or you just don't get one. You were taken advantage of - which requires your active consent. Nobody made you do all these things for them on faith. You could have left after a few days. You could ha…

> The most important thing is that you weren't "ripped off" - you were taken advantage of. Ripped off is when you buy a TV that's supposed to work and it doesn't. Or you just don't get one.

Pretty sure they used "ripped off" correctly: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/rip-o...

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#208

Post by galaxyLogic »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #189
tombert wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2015 I worked for a startup. I turned down a job at a more stable company because this startup had me doing Erlang and I really wanted to work with that. The job worked fine for about six months, and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something…

> and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something got fucked up with payroll man, don't worry we'll give you a double paycheck next time, with interest man". > I was young enough in my career to just accept that This reminded me of two much smaller-sc…

Maybe she just needed the money. Paying later always has the risk that it will never going to happen. And she helped you, did she get anything in return?

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#209

Post by elwray »

Tried freelancing for a bit. Thought being my own boss might give me better mental health. I couldn't have been more wrong. The better part of my time was spent on convincing the clients, what is built is what they had described.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#210

Post by fakedang »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #189
tombert wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2015 I worked for a startup. I turned down a job at a more stable company because this startup had me doing Erlang and I really wanted to work with that. The job worked fine for about six months, and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something…

> and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something got fucked up with payroll man, don't worry we'll give you a double paycheck next time, with interest man". > I was young enough in my career to just accept that This reminded me of two much smaller-sc…

Just happened with my dad, with one of his rental tenants. One of them lost his job (didn't get the job after the probation period), so he had booked a flight back home. Except because of the war in the Middle East, the flights were delayed constantly so he couldn't go back - and given that his flight was on a budget airline, it would take ages until normal operations resume (they still haven't resumed). The guy kept telling my father that he would pay once his ticket was booked, up until the very last minute when he revealed that he was broke and could not pay, burnt bridges and all. He incurred a significant expense after booking a flight with a non-discount carrier airline.

The irony was that had he revealed that he was broke from the start, my father wouldn't have minded as much about the rent (he has forgiven rent in such cases in far too many situations), but would have also helped him get the ticket for cheap.

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