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Comment by eoghan | Hacker News Reader

"You can't be anything you want to be."

I believe in this very strongly.

There are things that mostly depend on you, like studying hard in school or training for and finishing an Ironman.

There are other things where external conditions (like where you're located, whom you know, how wealthy you are, what your competitors are doing) are very strong factors and are hard to work around.

Well said. One of the most confident, motivated, well spoken people I've ever seen, I met at a bus station in Zambia. This guy, who I can honestly say would be far more successful than myself if he were to make it to America, had risen to pretty much the pinnacle of what he could achieve given the circumstances of his birth:

He was the most respected hustler at the biggest bus yard in Zambia.

All but one of those "external" factors can be worked around based on your actions.

But it's very hard to do in terms of knowing how to do it. Most people here on HN know what it takes to get good grades or work out, but even here on HN not everyone is good at networking, not everyone can relocate to SV (eg. because you have a family or don't get a Visa), not everyone can afford to repeatedle try again with a new company. Also, when I said "wealthy" I meant "how wealthy is your family", as in how big a risk can you afford to take.

Where I live (E.Europe) I find most tech entrepeneurs are from somewhat wealthy families (= they don't have to worry about getting a 9-5 job, but they're not driving around in sportcars), so they're motivated but get to take bigger risks, don't have to worry about making a steady income, and also receive free networking from their parents, who are usually also businessman.

You can still try to work around these problems, in fact I have tried to, but you're taking on very large risks which are hard to control. Eg. if you're supporting your startup with contract work because there's no VC money around, and your contracts dry up, then what. Or, if your competition, located in another part of the world gets VC money and speeds away in terms of hype (not even the product), then what.

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