The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
alexstechthoughts.com
The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
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Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#2I honestly think that these days if you're young and are not an engineer or something similar that's got jobs chasing you, being an entrepreneur (not necessarily a startup) is the only option.
Also, people in general believe their choices are the best choices and will go to great lengths to tell everyone that their own choices were better. Just one of those gorgeous biases we've got.
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#3But no one is judging anyone, right?
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#4I honestly think that these days if you're young and are not an engineer or something similar that's got jobs chasing you, being an entrepreneur (not necessarily a startup) is the only option. Also, people in general believe their choices are the best choices and will go to great lengths to tell everyone that their own choices were better. Just one of those gorgeous biases we've got.
Lawyers, doctors, retail, construction etc, etc. The world is a lot more varied than being an engineer or being relegated to entrepreneurdom.
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#5I honestly think that these days if you're young and are not an engineer or something similar that's got jobs chasing you, being an entrepreneur (not necessarily a startup) is the only option. Also, people in general believe their choices are the best choices and will go to great lengths to tell everyone that their own choices were better. Just one of those gorgeous biases we've got.
Lawyers, doctors, retail, construction etc, etc. The world is a lot more varied than being an engineer or being relegated to entrepreneurdom.
There are more lawyers than there are lawyering jobs. All the lawyer people I know are complaining and many are closing their offices because they can't get enough clients.
Doctors can't get jobs because so many people are vying for the same jobs it's difficult to even get a specialty. Nobody will hire you without a specialty.
Retail ... yeah, you're competing with everyone from high school students to college grads for jobs that often pay like 5 euro an hour.
Construction ... well maybe if you move to China or some other booming place. Most places I've seen around Europe are full of shutdown construction sites that have been standing still for a long long time.
And when I said engineer, I meant all types of engineers. Not just software.
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#6I honestly think that these days if you're young and are not an engineer or something similar that's got jobs chasing you, being an entrepreneur (not necessarily a startup) is the only option. Also, people in general believe their choices are the best choices and will go to great lengths to tell everyone that their own choices were better. Just one of those gorgeous biases we've got.
There's more to retail than shelf-stockers. Would you count running a brick-and-mortar store as being an entrepreneur?
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lawyers, doctors, retail, construction etc, etc. The world is a lot more varied than being an engineer or being relegated to entrepreneurdom.
There are more lawyers than there are lawyering jobs. All the lawyer people I know are complaining and many are closing their offices because they can't get enough clients. Doctors can't get jobs because so many people are vying for the same jobs it's difficult to even get a specialty. Nobody will hire you without a specialty. Retail ... yeah, you're competing with everyone from high school students to college grads…
I think what you're confusing here is a shrinking economy with a push to become entrepreneurs. Being 'jobless' is not the same as wanting or having to become an entrepreneur. It's true that in times of economic shrinkage there will be more one-man or one-woman companies founded in lieu of employment but that is usually an indicator of a broken social fabric than some desire on the part of the newly minted entrepreneurs, the majority of which will fail in the first year. Think of it as a last ditch attempt to make ends meet, if you can't be employed then you can attempt to be your own boss for a bit but if you then still can't find the (non-existent) work then it is quickly game over.
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#8Frankly, I'm surprised the attitude of many people seems to be: "I'm going to work at an established company for X years to get experience, then break off to start my own."
Then they write blog posts and postmortems about how they lost their friends and spouses, became horribly unhealthy and severely depressed. But it was worth it in the end, of course.
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#9This is an interesting perspective. However, I come for a different vantage point: I'm a terrible employee and I feel that the world worked hard to force a "corporate career path" on the wrong guy for years. Perhaps startup life should be always an anomaly because it isn't for everyone, but it's the only place I've ever felt like I was a meaningful part of meaningful work.
I do think it's still underrepresented as an option, though that appears to be improving. Also, access to investment and radically cheaper startup costs have made this very difficult path just a little less difficult. I think it's an amazing time to start something, an amazing time to be an indy developer. I also think these early-stage laboratories will help replenish some of the SMBs America has lost on the street corners. Maybe the days where you can make a living as a local grocer are gone. But the days to make a living as an innovative, startup grocery delivery service are just beginning.
EDIT: It's timely that the post immediately under this one on the front page is "Pushed to the limit as a banking intern". Maybe it's just my nature, but I didn't work less in a corporate environment. I was just more disconnected to my work and the results. I didn't feel the same impact.
Re: The Startup Life Is Not For Everyone
#10The cool thing about starting your own business is that you can build it however you like.
You can work 80 hour weeks or 10 hour weeks. Your choice. You can neglect your friends, family and health, and work yourself into the ground. Or not. Again, entirely up to you.
Surprisingly, the end result will probably be roughly the same. If you're good at building software, and work in bursts like most of us do, then a few good deep sessions a week will get your thing built plenty fast. And since so much of the other 90% of building a successful business is measured in "calendar time", it really doesn't hurt much if you don't get in 60 good hours one week.
Naturally, if you take VC money, they might prefer you do things the "normal" way. Fortunately, that's another thing you get to decide whether you want to do.