Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikekchar | Hacker News Reader

This is a really interesting document. I literally cringe reading it. At first I thought that I'd really like something like this document but with less random quotes, less facile language, less cheer leading, less fill in the blanks, etc. But then I thought... I wonder if I am reacting this way because this is exactly what I need to be reading. What if the way of thinking espoused by this document is precisely why I never start a business? Maybe it's the fact that I roll my eyes and completely disregard what people are saying when they start talking in this fashion that I haven't actually done anything.

Food for thought.

View on HN

My encouragement for you to start a business is this, 'become unstoppable'. How you become unstoppable is finding your 'why' for doing it. I think this is the hardest part... and more important than finding 'a business opportunity' because I think you need the meaning of your 'why' to sustain you through the difficulties of new venture creation, especially as you iterate through to product market fit.

I think once you have your why, you'll find yourself naturally doing whatever it takes to execute, which sharpens your focus away from noise like what you're describing (i.e. other people's communication styles) and allows you to 'take what you need' from resources, such as this book, and ignore everything else.

Is... Is this some kind of parody / troll comment?

Not at all. It's based on one of Simon Sinek's most well known TED talks: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...

Kind of... Simon Sinek distilled what I already knew to be true, and what I live as I work towards a company that "looks after people". The rest is from hard won wisdom AKA (temporary) failure.

I fully agree with the him, and I don’t understand why would you think it was a troll comment.

Because it's exactly the kind of stuff the OP was complaining about.

We’ll have to disagree here. The ‘why’ thing is based off scientific research on goal setting and motivation. As such there is an essential distinction from motivational quotes.

A sentence like "How you become unstoppable is finding your 'why' for doing it" is unscientific. That doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just completely open to interpretation. There are too many different ways to refine that idea into a testable hypothesis. So it doesn't mean much to say it's based on scientific research. It doesn't have any bearing on the original comment about vague, facile language.

"Telling people to become unstoppable helps them succeed in starting businesses," on the other hand, is a testable hypothesis, as is "people who believe they are unstoppable are more likely to start a successful business", and that's how interpreted the comments in this thread.

Treat that sentence as an awkward summation of personal experience then. That's how I took it, and it reflects perfectly my own.

I know what you mean, but like the poster, I have an aversion for all the hustle BS advice that I think is toxic. I'm curious to find out what part of my advice can be considered 'exactly the kind of stuff the OP was complaining about'?

I truely believe that everything we create in life, which includes a new venture, can be viewed in the frame of self actualization. To me this means the motive to realize one's full potential.

To me that is the essence of what an entrepreneur is trying to do, just in the context of co-creation with the market.

I'm not like the poster. I read your comment and I get some message that I think is helpful.

But there is no way I can be reasonably sure the message I got is the one you trying to convey, what means the post isn't clear (and in fact, I get a slightly different message from your answer). There is no indication on your post that the message is largely known to be true, or that it's opinion, or a hypothesis, I can't get how certain I must be of it. Overall I can't be sure that I'm just getting a message that fits my biases from noise, or if I am actually deriving meaning from the text.

Absolutely not a troll, this is my honest and sincere advice to someone who seems to be reaching for something just beyond their grasp.

I just wanted to say thanks for responding :-) The resultant thread was quite interesting if nothing else. But I also appreciate the advice.

I think it's really interesting how modes of communication can throw you (or at least me ;-) ). I seem to evaluate the content by the mode of communication, which is really incorrect. I suspect it was a coping mechanism I used when I was young to quickly sort the wheat from the chaff.

What others have said about your post is true for me as well. When I look at it superficially I think, "What does 'become unstoppable' mean in measurable terms". Well, it doesn't mean anything because it is not actually possible to become unstoppable in this context. You can always be stopped. But I think that leaving it there is not a good idea. The meaning of a sentence is not in the words: it's in the actual meaning that the original person intended to convey! So if I don't understand what you intended to convey, then I have missed the point entirely.

I think this is what I'm slowly learning, so I appreciate your contribution to that learning.

As for the 'why', I have a very good 'why', but the thing that is stopping me is probably that I just don't want to do it. Several years ago I thought about starting a brewery. I had the money. My friend who owned an empty factory even offered it to me for zero rent. I had the business plan. Everything was ready to go... and then I thought, "Wait a minute... working in a brewery. That's exactly the same as working in a factory. No matter how much I think making beer is cool, I don't want to work in a factory." Then I thought, "I can hire people to work in the factory. But what will I do?" And I thought of all the jobs that I could have at a brewery and I didn't want any of them. So I canned the brewery idea :-)

So for me, I think to be "unstoppable", I really need to find a job that I want to do at my new company. This is probably the biggest stumbling block I have.

Anyway, thanks again!

No worries mate, I guess I just wanted to give you some encouragement and some philosophical ideas that have helped me.

If I could clarify what I mean by being unstoppable, I mean something like, 'your attitude, or mental frame, is critical to making the first step as much as it is to each step of your new venture journey'.

I personally believe, from the experiences gained on my own new venture journey, that barriers are opportunities for growth... but they can also be reasons you use for abandoning your journey. Ray Dalio has a good YouTube video that summarises his book 'Principles' in 30 minutes which illustrates this idea perfectly. I wholeheartedly recommend the video and the book.

As I mentioned before, I believe when you have that 'why' you'll naturally do what you must. My ultimate 'why' is simply to be the best version of myself. Everything I do needs to live up to that... so decision making in the moment becomes simple and compelling (occasionally I do mess up and grow).

All my other 'whys' are a ranked subset... which makes me think that even though you had a 'why' for your brewery, you actually had other more compelling 'whys' which basically overrode that particular 'why'.

However, there is no right or wrong answer to the direction of your life (assuming you don't initiate harm on others)... you must decide for yourself what you believe.

You can even say that 'whys' are just beliefs... and that we have a hierarchy of them that pre-programs us to a particular set of actions. Think of it like f(x) = y. I think if you can assess your beliefs you can also decide what you want them to be, and if you decide on their ranked order, you can program yourself to whatever success means to you.

As for finding a job to do at your new company... I define my 'job' as someone who looks after 'people'. In this context 'people' means myself, employees, clients and society (in that order). This then naturally leads me to ask, "Am I being the best version of myself as I look after people?"

This is an infinite game and one that I'll never be bored doing because there is always scope for improvement.

Anyhow just some throughs... all the best!

You don’t have to buy into motivational speaking nonsense in order to start a business, and it’s reasonably safe to ignore people who give advice in that style.

So when you see Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins quotes everywhere you can move on.

The trick though is not to let your distaste for a certain kind of content-free motivational business writing prevent you from taking a rigorous and scientific approach to management, business, and sales, which does require realizing that charisma, charm, interpersonal skills, motivation, emotional stability, and so on actually do matter and you’d better have a plan for those areas as well.

One of the things I like about Zig Ziglar is that he doesn't take himself seriously. He talks about exactly that: that this stuff is nonsense and only said to make a point. The point being that you have to figure out what works for you and what motivates you. And that you can't escape understanding your motivations if you want to be successful.

I feel like you're implying that in order to start a successful business you need to think/talk like this. I can't imagine any reason that would be true. However, if you want people to listen to your theories after you're successful, this type of language is exactly what you should use. He's maximizing his audience. It's proven that this type of speaking works well to build an audience (at least in the United States). In contrast, it's not clear that this way of thinking is required to start a successful business.

Find someone successful in business who doesn't talk like this. There are plenty of them around. I can't stand this type of talk either, thankfully when I started my business my friends / mentors were much more down-to-earth.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com