CEO of Svpply: I have no idea what I'm doing • Hacker News Board

Re: CEO of Svpply: I have no idea what I'm doing

#71

Post by speleding » Sun, May 15, 2011, 11:54 AM UTC

marcamillion wrote: post #23

I am very grateful for this post. One of the most common pieces of valuable feedback I got before starting my company (as a sole founder) is that I need to keep going no matter what - especially in times of self-doubt. I always considered myself to be confident, and self-assured (not obnoxious, just confident)...but starting a company is a completely different cup of tea. I have both a Computer Science degree + an MB…

Thank you for that post. I wish I could go back in time 5 years and read it then. I'm an MBA + CS degree bearing startup founder with autodidact Rails skills too. Now, I don't really need the advice anymore having it figured out myself already but it's nice to see I'm not alone.

If you are lucky, the self-doubt makes way for self-confidence eventually. Even for completely new things you start thinking, "well, I managed the last few times, it will probably work out OK this time too". I wonder if all the confident people I see starting out just have naive bravado or are very good at hiding their self-doubt.

Re: CEO of Svpply: I have no idea what I'm doing

#72

Post by erikpukinskis » Sun, May 15, 2011, 4:57 PM UTC

ditojim wrote: post #37

it isn't smart for a ceo to be publicly open about these weaknesses, but it is brutally honest, and i respect that. you may gain more than you lose from this post, but in general i have found that confidence in your ability to get it done and figure it our means everything, and that telling people you don't know what you are doing creates FUD in an organization.

He appears to be supremely confident in his ability to get it done. He's just admitting he doesn't have a lot of experience, and doesn't know exactly how it's going to play out.

If you're bald you don't get dates by pretending you're not bald... you get dates by not caring that you're bald.

Re: CEO of Svpply: I have no idea what I'm doing

#73

Post by jpk » Mon, May 16, 2011, 1:44 PM UTC

dasil003 wrote: post #31

jpk wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an attitude I've never agreed with. Say you're an investor. Would you rather this CEO put on an I-know-what-I'm-doing face, and imply that he's got this all under control? Or would you rather he be upfront about his lack of experience but determination to get it right by learning and surrounding himself with smart people that can help him? Maybe he fails, maybe he doesn't. At least you know what you're gettin…

> Would you rather this CEO put on an I-know-what-I'm-doing face, and imply that he's got this all under control? Up front in my office or up front in a public blog? I certainly wouldn't want him scaring off potential deals with over-the-top candor. > Dishonesty is dishonesty no matter how you cut it. This is a ridiculous assertion. If you walk around saying every true thing that comes into your mind at best you'll b…

You're reading a comment I didn't write. I was replying to "Withholding the truth isn't lying." Telling the truth in the privacy of your office isn't withholding the truth. How public you should be about this sort of thing is debatable (which is what most of the discussion here was), but I wasn't speaking to that. F_J_H articulated my point a little more clearly.