Taking Risk

And again, "con artist" was not talking about start-up.

> This is absolutely the implication of what you said.

That is incorrect. I can see why you can interpret it like that, and indeed I should have been more clear, but it's just incorrect to pretend that there is a logical implication.

It's more like saying "I don't know how I feel about Ted Cruz, but then again, once, I voted for a rapist". In this case, it does not mean that I imply that Ted Cruz is a rapist, it just mean that my bar is as low as voting for a rapist. It does not mean I'm saying Ted Cruz is a rapist, it can totally mean that Ted Cruz is probably therefore above the bar. This is way more what I've said in the previous comment: "US people are less uncomfortable with start-up that will have unrealistically ambitious claims, but then again, US people are less unforgiving with con artists, so it's not surprising".

> but "con artists" is a lot more specific and critical than that, and that's what I was responding to.

And again, even if we go to the "start-up / scam" discussion, none of that is saying that all start-up are scam or that none of the non-start-up are not scam, but again, some start-ups are scam, this is just a fact. You seem to react like if saying that some start-ups are scam is going to far.

It still reflects a bit though, and in my limited experience it holds true that the successes I have been either involved with or adjacent to have been accomplished by either money in the bank, credit cards, or shedding “normal” expenses by moving to somewhere that the cost of living was maybe twenty percent of normal.

Obviously you’re not going to do any of those things unless you are really sold on the value proposition of your product, and you think it can scale to bring 100x plus rewards on your time.

But if it’s a 10 percent chance of success on a 100x gain, that’s a bet I’ll take all day, every day.

But I don’t criticize anyone for not being willing to drop everything only to probably fail, and repeat that 10 times to get one solid win. That’s not for everyone, to be sure.

But I think that’s really what I mean anyway, if you’re going to try for anything but the low hanging fruit, you’ll have to be willing to do what most people will not.

That doesn’t make it the “right” thing for everyone though, and it sure doesn’t lead to a Healthy work-life balance, at least in the beginning.

Edit: Now that you've got me introspecting a bit, I think I realized my own ideas about these things are probably fundamentally unworkable for most people's dominant paradigm.

I haven't held a job in 40 years, I'm comfortable now but wasn't always. Even when I was young I refused to do anything for money I wouldn't do for free. That is a very expensive attitude to have, and unless you are willing to live in a very primitive way as I was, it is a very hard line to tow.

But I am happy with that decision, it has served me well, and made me very very comfortable and happy in life.

It honestly never occurred to me that anyone would think of starting a business that they weren't just dying to do anyway lol, but now I can see that that's an edge case, and your sincere if unenthusiastic words about your business made that click.

That said, I really don't think anyone should launch a startup or any business that they wouldn't do without compensation if they had the free time. Not that there aren't plenty of opportunities to make money for money's sake, but I just cant see that as being a wise way to spend the very finite hours we have in this life.

Thanks for being sincere, It has helped me to understand others a little better. Ive often seen a lack of total commitment as an insincere interest, but I now think maybe its more nuanced than that for many people. Still, I don't think I would fund or be involved in any project where i felt that the key people could be dissuaded from trying to complete their goal.

I was later invited to work for a startup as the first engineer. They offered me £45k which I negotiated up to £50k, which I declined as my stable job raised me to £52k to keep me. This startup is still doing well it seems, but that just wasn't a risk I could afford. I had no liquidity, I was barely saving £200 a month. If the startup fell through and I had no severance, then I would have had to find a job almost immediately or default on my rent.

This article is an extremely privileged take (which it acknowledges). University is relatively cheap in the UK, which makes the people that attend top universities often come from all classes of wealth.

I now have a lot more of my own cash in hand now and can certainly survive a few months of downtime, but I still probably wouldn't go for an early stage startup as I'd likely have to take a huge salary cut and would not be adding into this savings pot. I would rather be in a stable and good band of living rather than risk being on the poverty line again.