Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

ryancarson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 89 posts

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#41

Post by Varcht »

analog31 wrote: post #19

4. Happy to take risks I always wonder what people mean by "risk" in this context. If risk is a probability of failure, then if someone has minimized that probability through other means (seeing an opportunity where others haven't, working real hard, etc.) then it isn't risk. If others aren't trying to do the same thing and failing at it, then it might not be risky. The "risk" thing may just be part of the badass ima…

I think the risk in this context is to make a guess and go all in on it. It's the opposite of taking the time to reach a high level of certainty before starting.

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#42

Post by r12s »

ryancarson wrote: post #23
pinkyand wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe for some people, their passion lies in money/fame/etc ,but they see very clearly how attacking said opportunity would lead to those, and it gives them enough "passion" and motivation?

I pity someone who is 'passionate' about those things.

Yeah, me too. While I'm at it, really loved the post, made me smile (a lot). So you're "fourth time lucky" ;-)

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#43

Post by tedks »

ryancarson wrote: post #23
pinkyand wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe for some people, their passion lies in money/fame/etc ,but they see very clearly how attacking said opportunity would lead to those, and it gives them enough "passion" and motivation?

I pity someone who is 'passionate' about those things.

Such an arrogant attitude. As if you'd be working on what you're working on if it didn't get you money or power. One is the other, really.

No human alive doesn't want power. That's the basic evolutionary fuel of our entire species. There's no other desire humans even have -- anything else is just a means to that end.

The truly powerful people in the world -- the ones whose names you don't know, because they don't particularly care for your knowing them -- they never lie to themselves, and they probably know exactly where their passions are. The less powerful people, the Jeff Bezos's and the Larry Ellisons, they probably learned over time.

The people who think they do what they do for any other reason are deluding themselves about the game that they're playing. There's only one game.

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#44

Post by onewaystreet »

paul9290 wrote: post #37

Indeed, the following factors below is what makes you a success... 1. Luck/Serendipity - Your startup launches for the first or fifth time & boom gets traction, which money/success immediately follows. Think Pinterest, Uber, Facebook, Youtube; basically it's like winning the lottery! and 2. Network - You know the right people & or convinced them to give you their resources (their connections & money). With this you c…

Pinterest is the only one of those companies whose success was close to immediate. Uber, Facebook, Youtube all had to grind it out. Uber battled (and still is) many legal challenges; YouTube almost went the way of Napster early on; and Facebook was an underdog to MySpace for a long time.

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#45

Post by jsonmez »

What he says not only proves that he is absolutely right, but it also proves that he is absolutely wrong.

Kind of reminds me of this:

After his service in the war, Socrates devoted himself to his favorite pastime: the pursuit of truth.

His reputation as a philosopher, literally meaning 'a lover of wisdom', soon spread all over Athens and beyond. When told that the Oracle of Delphi had revealed to one of his friends that Socrates was the wisest man in Athens, he responded not by boasting or celebrating, but by trying to prove the Oracle wrong.

So Socrates decided he would try and find out if anyone knew what was truly worthwhile in life, because anyone who knew that would surely be wiser than him. He set about questioning everyone he could find, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer. Instead they all pretended to know something they clearly did not.

Finally he realized the Oracle might be right after all. He was the wisest man in Athens because he alone was prepared to admit his own ignorance rather than pretend to know something he did not.

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#46

Post by PhasmaFelis »

tedks wrote: post #43
ryancarson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pity someone who is 'passionate' about those things.

Such an arrogant attitude. As if you'd be working on what you're working on if it didn't get you money or power. One is the other, really. No human alive doesn't want power. That's the basic evolutionary fuel of our entire species. There's no other desire humans even have -- anything else is just a means to that end. The truly powerful people in the world -- the ones whose names you don't know, because they don't par…

> No human alive doesn't want power. That's the basic evolutionary fuel of our entire species. There's no other desire humans even have -- anything else is just a means to that end.

If you're going to be that reductionist, then you're still wrong. The basic evolutionary drive behind our species, and all others, is to reproduce and spread your genes. Everything else stems, however circuitously, from redirected or misdirected reproductive drive.

But either way, you're being silly. For example, I want to make enough money to support myself and afford a few luxuries now and then, and have as much free time as possible to spend with friends, books, and games. It's not technically incorrect to say that I want power (over my life and environment), but to say that my motivations are identical to those of a senator or a billionaire is ridiculous.

> The people who think they do what they do for any other reason are deluding themselves about the game that they're playing. There's only one game.

See, here's your problem, speaking of delusion. You've let the people playing the game of power trick you into thinking that their game is the only one in town.

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#47

Post by ryancarson »

tedks wrote: post #43
ryancarson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pity someone who is 'passionate' about those things.

Such an arrogant attitude. As if you'd be working on what you're working on if it didn't get you money or power. One is the other, really. No human alive doesn't want power. That's the basic evolutionary fuel of our entire species. There's no other desire humans even have -- anything else is just a means to that end. The truly powerful people in the world -- the ones whose names you don't know, because they don't par…

The reason I pity people who are passionate about power or money is because I have experienced much greater happiness in loving and being loved, unconditionally. The strongest of those loves are from my wife, my kids, my sisters and my mom and dad. None of those folks love me because of power or money.

I've had a couple things that would demonstrate me having money like a super expensive watch, a brand new Audi, a big house, etc. They were great for getting fleeting "Wow, he's got money!" glances from folks. Then I realized their like for me was related to stuff, not me. It just all seemed very vacuous.

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#48

Post by ryancarson »

jsonmez wrote: post #45

What he says not only proves that he is absolutely right, but it also proves that he is absolutely wrong. Kind of reminds me of this: After his service in the war, Socrates devoted himself to his favorite pastime: the pursuit of truth. His reputation as a philosopher, literally meaning 'a lover of wisdom', soon spread all over Athens and beyond. When told that the Oracle of Delphi had revealed to one of his friends t…

I think that was either a huge compliment, or a terrible slight, but I can't quite figure out which one :)

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#49

Post by beambot »

staunch wrote: post #11

If Elon Musk had made $16M, instead of $160M, from PayPal there would be no Tesla or SpaceX. He likely would have spent his time much less productively, and the world would be worse off. And yet, very few people similar to Elon Musk ever find themselves in the position of being rich enough to field an army. In a future where resources aren't so constrained we'll start to see "geniuses" everywhere.

Before PayPal, Musk was heavily involved in Zip2. Upon its sale, he netted $22M. So that suggests an answer to your question: If he hadn't netted $160M from PayPal, he would've founded another company where he could go bigger.

Zip2 details on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Re: Entrepreneurs think they’re badass

#50

Post by PhasmaFelis »

wyager wrote: post #13

You can't win if you don't play. It's not like successful entrepreneurs were just sitting on their asses and success smote them like a lightning bolt. Yes, there's a lot of luck involved, but it takes hard, risky work that most people aren't willing to put in just to have a chance at capturing that luck.

This is true, but I think it's important to remember that you really do need both hard work and luck. The insidious American myth is that hard work is the one and only ingredient to success. The implication, of course, is that anyone who doesn't succeed must be lazy or otherwise undeserving, no matter how diligently they actually worked.
Post reply on HN