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I am done. I give up

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Re: I am done. I give up

#671

Post by majani »

opyate wrote: post #320

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…

While it is true that entrepreneurship is indeed an upper middle class game, you tell only half the story. I've met guys who went from poor to cushy big tech jobs and even then they are deathly afraid of risk. Probably some form of PTSD from their poor days makes them never want to risk going back

Re: I am done. I give up

#672

Post by bumby »

kolbe wrote: post #656
bumby wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This misses the point completely. One side is taking advantage of geo-arbitrage while the other is fleeing violence. It's a false equivalence.

The US has 18 large cities with a higher homicide rate than Guatemala. 50 with more than half of Guatemala's. The difference between the two countries from a violence perspective hardly constitutes "fleeing." Edit: country level is 6.5 for the US vs 17.5 for Guatemala, which is also not a difference consistent with war vs peace. But since "refugees" end up mostly in cities, and hundreds of thousands end up in the ver…

This is the definition of cherry picking data. If you are comparing rates between countries, use the country data.

I have personal experience with refugees from Central America and Mexico. I can assure you, many are fleeing violence.

Edit: Dismissing 2.7x rate does not make for a strong point. You are jumping through hoops to not be wrong. E.g., one of the cities that receives the most refugees from Guatemala is El Paso, TX, which is consistently one of the safest cities in the U.S.

Your choice of metrics also does not paint a full picture. Many people are fleeing to avoid being conscripted by a cartel. That type of violence does not show up in homicide statistics. You're demonstrating a superficial understanding.

Edit 2: El Paso is the opposite of cherry picking; as I already pointed out, they are relevant because they take in a disproportionate amount of refugees. So, of the U.S. cities that you point to with higher per-capita homicides, can you point out if any absorb more refugees than El Paso? Because that was central to your point that refugees are jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

I did not get you "suspended". You got your own post removed because you weren't following HN guidelines. I tried to point that out to help, but you were too busy arguing to notice. Not everything is a personalized attack.

Re: I am done. I give up

#673

Post by epolanski »

didip wrote: post #647
pavlov wrote: post #200

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…

The problem with Nordic model is that they are too successful in taking care of the people. Very few are “hungry” and “hunger” is an important ingredient to startups

Cool, I guess less hunger for less startups is a good deal.

Re: I am done. I give up

#674

Post by Sodman »

koobe wrote: post #230
pavlov wrote: post #200

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…

Flip side of the welfare state is the heavy tax burden. Heavily progressive income tax makes it harder for individuals to accumulate capital for enterprenial endeavours, be it their own or investing in others'. This limits early stage investments and growth. Also, there are limited incentives in investing in careers and productivity as net income is surprisingly similar in lowest 10% and highest 10% income earners.

In Finland, Denmark, The Netherlands, and Sweden, the income distribution ratio[0] of the total income earned by the top 20% of earners vs the bottom 20% of earners is about ~4x. Denmark has a personal income tax rate of 56% [1]

Best data I could find[2] after a quick google on USA puts income distribution ratio around 5.2x, so not much of a substantial difference in gross income disparity vs USA at the 20th/80th percentiles. Personal income tax rate is about 37%[3], so certainly USA lets you keep more of your paycheck than Denmark.

So high earners in US are making ~20% more than their peers in Denmark relative to the bottom 20% in their respective countries, and folks in the US pay ~20% less tax as well.

Certainly it's a notable difference but we're not talking orders of magnitude here, especially since the above math doesn't account for all of the benefits that higher tax rate brings, both tangible and intangible.

However, when we're talking in absolute numbers, most Danes out-earn most Americans. The median wage in the US is ~$52k [4] vs Denmark at ~$72k [5], which closes the gap even more.

I suspect there are significant differences and outliers at the extremes however, and that is likely where most of the VC money lives - whether we're talking about angel investors dropping >$100k or VCs spending millions on pre-revenue companies. I'd wager we're well into the top 1% of earners in the US doing the funding. This is the most likely explanation to account for the differences in early stage investments and growth opportunities you described above, imho.

[0] https://tradingeconomics.com/denmark/income-distribution-eur...

[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/denmark/personal-income-tax-rat...

[2] https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-percen...

[3] https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/personal-income-t...

[4] https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/united-states

[5] https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/denmark

Re: I am done. I give up

#675

Post by james2doyle »

I had my own company for a while. We were doing pretty well given my founder and I were in our 20s, it was our first company, and neither of us worked anywhere else before. We started it right out of college. We ended up having half a dozen employees and a nice office in the downtown of our city. We worked on some cool projects and had a good reputation.

But the stress was insane. Being that young and not having the experience or support around us was incredibly difficult. Having the thought in the back of your mind each month that you might have to let an employee go, lose a project/employee, or have a client bail on you, was overwhelming.

I ended up quitting after about 3 years. I now work for other companies and let them worry about all these things. I am much happier now and my work is much better. I also have a better work/life balance.

Consider the "having my own company" phase over if you feel that way. It isn't for everyone. A lot of society applauds entrepreneurs and glorifies them. Makes it seem like it's a great option for everyone and if you aren't running some company you must be a loser in the cog of the machine... That is not the case.

I actually make more money now than I did running my own company. I used to say I had more freedom but given I work from home now too, it is actually almost the same. I take more vacations now too. I couldn't afford to be away for a week when I had my own business.

I know once you pass a certain point you work "on the business, not in the business" but that is, like others have mentioned, the minority of companies that actually get that far and succeed.

Re: I am done. I give up

#676

Post by dinkumthinkum »

annyeonghada wrote: post #447
joshwolff wrote: post #279

Hate to say it, but you sound like you're victimizing yourself. You're not a victim. And victimhood mentality likely played a large role in your failure. Try to change your mindset and try again when you feel you're ready.

>victimhood mentality Does this kind of pseudo-self-help-tough-love help anyone? Whenever I read something like that I do not feel motivated but enraged. Sometimes people are really victims. Mainly of chance.

I don’t think it’s tough love per se. I think it’s just true that many people let a victim mentality get in there way. Not derail the thread but I think it is more problematic now as victimhood is lionized today. It can be very helpful yo show people that letting go of this is a way yo change your circumstance. It doesn’t mean the person is not a victim of something or yo downplay it but it is a recognition of how to actual affect change in one’s life. I do actually some people take this advice abs internalize it and get on a more successful path because of it.

Re: I am done. I give up

#677

Post by ska »

spikeagally wrote: post #196
Communitivity wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded. I personally try to never use the phrase 'lifestyle business'. Instead I use the phrase 'bootstrapped business', because that is what it is. You have bootstrapped the business yourself organically over time instead of at a fast pace of growth with VC money.

My understanding is that bootstrapped and lifestyle are different things. A lifestyle business should be able to run on autopilot with minimal involvement from the founder (hence they can focus on living their life, rather than working). A bootstrapped business is one built with your own capital - it doesn’t necessarily have to become a lifestyle business.

> with minimal involvement from the founder (hence they can focus on living their life, rather than working).

I don't think this is right, most of the "lifestyle businesses" I've seen involve at least "normal" levels of work on their part, but are structured so that the work happens where & when suits other parts of their lives, or similar. At least the ones where that term made sense.

They are often located somewhere that causes some friction, or have opportunities to grow that they don't take on, etc.

Re: I am done. I give up

#678

Post by moneywoes »

noduerme wrote: post #161

Just want to chime in as someone who lived as a "digital nomad" overseas for about a decade in the early 2000s before that was a fad - and never touted it: the influencers ruined it. Along with all the people trying to do the same thing. The whole point was to get away from the world of high school type popularity bullshit and go experience the world and other cultures long term, on their own terms. That's exactly th…

How did you check or determine who would be successful? These are retail SMBs?

Re: I am done. I give up

#679

Post by gabereiser »

This may seem a bit off base but have you tried marketing? Sounds like it's an area that may be a weakness for you. Have you looked at partnering or hiring a PR/marketing firm to do some of that for you?

The old saying is "Work Smart, Not Hard". It sounds like you were working harder and harder to try to make it happen without looking at whether those efforts are actually being successful. You can tweet and engage and support the community but unless you're marketing a product or executing a plan, you're just working hard, not smart.

Luck has a lot to do with it. Being at the right place, at the right time, with the right product. Network has to do with it as well. Who you know can get you farther than what you know. Finally, marketing, are you selling a service? a product? How are you attracting new users? What's your growth? Conversion rate? etc. Building something is just one part of the jigsaw. Making people aware you built something is the other. Convincing them it's a good thing, well, that's sales.

Re: I am done. I give up

#680

Post by starkd »

kgantchev wrote: post #487
pavlov wrote: post #200

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…

Interestingly, the US still ranks #1 in the world in Entrepreneurship and Switzerland is #2. Source: https://thegedi.org/global-entrepreneurship-and-development-... I think the reason why welfare is irrelevant here is because the people going into entrepreneurship tend to be skilled enough to find a good-paying job even if their startup fails. Suppose that you're a good product manager or a good developer that's goin…

But those skills are still getting diverted from more productive means. Those pursuits are allowed to exist for longer for the dream that they will someday be massively productive. Look at the blockchain space to see all the companies that are about to go under, if they haven't already.
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