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I am done. I give up

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Re: I am done. I give up

#921

Post by ETH_start »

flir wrote: post #455
pavlov wrote: post #298

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.

I personally think being opposed to high rates of taxation is a desireable quality in a person but that was orthogonal to my hunch, which I was trying to present as neutrally as possible, with no value judgment. The parent comment is unnecessarily inflammatory.

Re: I am done. I give up

#923

Post by Juliate »

wakana wrote: post #920
Archipelagia wrote: post #323

This might sound a bit assholish, but I'm writing this to hopefully help others spot a crucial mistake: Did you have anyone on your team with actual skill in sales or marketing? Because from your post it seems you tried the same channels that everyone else does (writing blog, engaging on Twitter, setting up ProductHunt launch) without any specific strategy for how to succeed. And this stuff is hard! There's a reason…

In retrospect, I also feel that lack of experience in sales was a major issue wrt my skillset. How would you recommend someone like me (with a mostly technical and academia-oriented background) to approach learning sales from scratch?

Partner with someone who already has a leg or very obvious affinity in it. Don’t do everything by yourself.

That’s rule number 1 in life, in general, for everything: invite guests to bring something they like/manage to the table.

Re: I am done. I give up

#924

Post by Jochim »

defrost wrote: post #916
Jochim wrote: post #868

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"World class" health and education brings you some of the worst maternal mortality rates in the developed world[1]. Doubling Canada's rate and adding a bit more really screams world class. You do pay out the ass for it though so good job making someone rich I guess? Shame about all the dead babies though[2]. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/283221/per-capita-health... [1] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/ch…

> "World class" health and education brings you some of the worst maternal mortality rates in the developed world ... Just to be clear, I was referring to the Nordic countries, Australia, better performing OECD countries, etc and not referring to the US. Your links bear out my position, that US "free market | low taxes" approach doesn't deliver good outcomes for the masses.

Indeed! Forgive me, I misinterpreted your earlier post to be claiming that the "low cost" of US healthcare offsets the "high taxes" of comparable countries.

Re: I am done. I give up

#925

Post by mannymanman »

blagie wrote: post #250
drewcon wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is excellent advice. I followed roughly this path until I was in my late 30s. Now have a startup that is growing because we put in essentially 5 years of groundwork, while working full time day jobs, building product in an industry that isn’t sexy, being “lucky” (patient/observant) enough to ride a new federal regulation, having go throw away an entire product after 2 years and starting a new product in the same…

This is the right model. The vast majority of successful startups I've seen in my extended circle of friends didn't target other programmers or programmer-like consumers. Most startups try to build another database, web framework, or data service, or whatnot, because that's the problem programmers are familiar with. The next ones are consumer products, assuming consumers look like SFO. The competition is fierce, and…

How did your friends go about finding non-programmer markets? I can't leave my current role in tech because I don't have a big safety net, but I want to understand other markets and figure out inefficiencies. I've seen this advice about exploring non-tech industries pop up a lot and am interested in following through.

Re: I am done. I give up

#926

Post by mannymanman »

drewcon wrote: post #903
sanderjd wrote: post #758

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one issue (for those of us who are the kind of people that read this site) is that "entrepreneurship" and "startup" are overloaded terms. Most of the discussion here is about "startups" with huge growth ambitions. But what you're describing here is just "starting a business". Both things are "entrepreneurship", but they are extremely different beasts, with different paths to and likelihoods of success. The bi…

Totally disagree. We started a business in a market with huge TAM, venture backed, and have had meaningfully scaled customer and revenue growth… But that market is seafood supply chain compliance, and I guarantee you no influencer gives a flying fuck about it or even knows it exists. It’s gross, it’s not sexy, the people working in it are absolutely not on this website. If you get out of the echo chamber, there are l…

How do you suggest getting out of the echo chamber without leaving my job? I need to continue in my current role because I don't have a big safety net, but I want to get exposure to non-tech industries and find out inefficiencies.

As an aside, how did you zero in on seafood supply chain compliance? Were you in that industry previously?

Re: I am done. I give up

#927

Post by Fazel94 »

botswana99 wrote: post #720

I am so sorry you feel bad. Want some advice from an older engineer turned entrepreneur? Be proud of what you have done. Not many people take risks in life. You did. Being the 'man in the arena' is enough. I read this quote from Teddy Roosevelt often: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to…

One of the original startup influencers of his time.

Re: I am done. I give up

#928

Post by tikiman163 »

You're not an Indie Entrepreneur, that is complete nonsense. Indie just means independent, and given that all entrepreneurs are by definition independent, you're kind of giving me insight into why you failed. Indie only applies to 2 industries, game development and music, both of these industries are mainly dominated by major studios which people work for even if they are well known publicly.

Don't get me wrong, starting a business is extremely hard work, and I'm sure you did everything you could, but when every 5th word you say or write is essentially a buzz word, people don't respond to that. Also, if all of your advertising was digital, then you need a minimum startup capital that can pay influences to make people aware of you and your product. It sucks, but unless you have a sizable following or are yourself a really good salesman, you're more likely to fail.

This is something I've studied extensively, and it's painful every time I have to tell a friend they would suck at running their own business.

Re: I am done. I give up

#929

Post by danaris »

prottog wrote: post #841
danaris wrote: post #805

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use your business to make life easier for millions of people, that's good. If you take enough profit to make billions of dollars for yourself, that's bad. Because no one person (or family) can ever realize anything resembling a proportionate benefit from that money, all you're doing is raising your dollar-denominated high score, at the expense of all the other people you could be helping more if you invested t…

When someone becomes rich through this path, they aren't rolling around with a billion dollars in a vault Scrooge McDuck style. Almost all of their wealth that isn't taxed is already tied in their own business or in investments in other businesses, so they're already doing the things that you say will make it work for the world. Even the little bit of liquid money they keep in the bank is loaned out to other profit-s…

> You are saying that if a man who planted potatoes harvests them and keeps some for himself above and beyond what he needs to subsist, he is evil. I'm really not sure how you justify that position.

I don't, because that's not what I'm saying.

If you actually read my post, I did not say that taking any profit was evil. I said taking enough profit to make you a billionaire was evil.

The scale of what it takes to become a billionaire is absolutely mind-boggling. I might, if I am lucky, make enough in my lifetime to have a million dollars saved up.

I would have to work a thousand of those lifetimes to get a billion dollars.

And yes; someone who is a billionaire keeps that money in stocks and things, and it's true that it's not just a pile of cash...but that doesn't actually mean that it's usefully "in the economy". It's still theirs. (And remember, unless you buy it as part of a direct issuance from the company, buying stock doesn't actually put more money in their pocket.)

Re: I am done. I give up

#930

Post by kaashif »

rpadovani wrote: post #510
kaashif wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really cannot grasp the individualism about "I know how to write code, I deserve a better life than 95% of the population". You're missing something here. You can omit the first sentence. People already believe they deserve a better life than 95% of the population, even without being able to code specifically.

That's... illuminating. Really. It's a sad take, but could completely be true. It's not "I am a engineer, thus I deserve to have more", it's "I deserve more, what part of my life can I use to say this?".

But I don't think it's sad. The desire to have more for ourselves and our children (why else would they be talking about buying a family home?) is a large part of the reason why living standards keep rising.

If everyone desires to be above average and strives to produce more, earn more, then over time the average will rise. This is good.

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