531–540 of 1001 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is "my intuition" a euphemism for "I've read an Ayn Rand novel"?
It's funny, I read that as a retelling of John Steinbeck's "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" quote, not as a Randian Just So story. Being averse to paying tax isn't a desirable quality in a person.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A big fact of the entrepreneur world is that it is hugely based on luck. Luck of finding the right idea, the right market, the right timing, the right connections, the right customers, the right employees, the right financing. This is not true! I have seen successful business built from scratch by people who had no connections, no money and no privileged background (and no VC money). And I will say this for sure, i…
They were very lucky to succeed then. Entrepreneurship is so heavily weighted towards the wealthy, privileged, well-connected set.
The people I known are serial entrepreneurs, so this certainly is not luck. Yes, some ventures do not succeed, but then the company immediately pivots to things that are actually making money.
As I mentioned earlier, it is not easy. It is lot of hard work and hustle.
That's the most important question to ask yourself. I also tried running a startup that got nowhere. What I learned is that I like spending most of my time behind a computer, programming. Thus, I decided I was better off joining someone else's startup so I could spend all day programming. I'm a lot happier that way.
Perhaps there's something in the process that you really enjoyed? Can you do just that piece in someone else's startup? Do you believe you'll be more successful working in a team when you're doing what you do best, and someone else is running the company?
I think you can, and with some self reflection on what you were good at, I think you'll find a great direction for your future career.
But as someone who has been where you are, and has a couple of small exits, dude... you're trying to get into the NBA. It's really fucking hard.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bezos would not have kept Amazon in the US if it adopted Nordic welfare levels of taxation. The fact of the matter is that the EU has a staggeringly low output when it comes to tech innovation compared to the US. Their policies and regulations shape this.
I looked up taxation in Norway, it looks very similar to ours. Personal marginal tax rates cap at 48% and corporate taxes are 23%. What am I missing? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Norway
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the privileges people don't often think about is being able to afford to fail. If you don't risk destitution after your startup fails, you can try and fail many times, learn and try again. It's like continuously rolling two dice, and you only need to get double sixes once, and after that it's private jets until you die. One of the many reasons the rich get richer and the poor, well you know how it goes.
Sure, the rich have more advantages than the poor. Always been that way and always will. In our culture there is an immense preoccupation with the unfairness of this but the reality is that if you don't come from wealth and privilege, you need a different playbook. Dwelling on the inequity neuters you. If you want to win you need to figure out what the playbook is and then do the right things. I found a playbook that…
Succeeding in the startup world reminds me of the funfair analogy: The rich kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and miss. But, because they're a rich kid, they just take out their wallet (or parents' wallet), get more stubs, and try again (and again) until they hit the balloon. The middle class kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and also miss. Then they will walk away, saying…
What are the real names of the books? For instance, "Zero To Plushy" is play on "Zero To One". List out the names for the other books.
"The Dart Thing About Dart Things: Plushy Hunting When There Are No Easy Answers" is a play on "The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers"
"Dart Throwers at Work: Stories of Plushy Hunters' Early Days" is a play on "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance"
"You Are a Badass at Hunting Plushies: Master the Mindset of Throwing Darts" is a play on "You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life"
"The Lean Plushy Hunter" is a play on "The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses"Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is one of the underappreciated benefits of the Nordic-style welfare state: everybody can afford to fail. Unfortunately it's rarely discussed in society as such. The political parties that built these welfare states have traditionally been associated with worker unions, and entrepreneurship isn't high on their agenda. The Nordic right-wing parties got ideologically married to Thatcher-style neoliberalism and pref…
Absolutely, and this explains largely why most of the massively successful startups we all know comes from the Nordics and not from places with poor social security like the USA
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Norway, not Finland. >The people you rob (the ones paying the bulk of taxes) have a lower incentive to produce. Sure, the thought of being worth only 150 billion dollars rather than 300 would stop Bezos from starting Amazon.
Bezos would not have kept Amazon in the US if it adopted Nordic welfare levels of taxation. The fact of the matter is that the EU has a staggeringly low output when it comes to tech innovation compared to the US. Their policies and regulations shape this.
The EU has a lower output because there are fewer investors. One successful startup creates wealth in the hand of knowledgeable people who can create the next startup. There are simply not thousands of millionaires and billionaires who can successfully pick the next round. There is also less of a network effect where venture capitalists can offer their portfolio as leads for the sales teams of their new investments.
The Nordic welfare levels can turn out to be the path to European success. It's easier to start an idea when failure doesn't end in an existential crisis.