How to Lose Money with 25 Years of Failed Businesses | Hacker News Reader

How to Lose Money with 25 Years of Failed Businesses

joeldare.com

52 pointscodazoda12 comments

I love this post, I can relate to this. Building things and succeeding is awfully hard. For some of us, making is a way of life. Keep hustling.

Never work for the family business of another family.

Actually one of the best jobs I had was for a family business.

And some of the best jobs in finance (9 to 4, regular hours, high pay, stability) tend to be in family offices too.

Me too. It’s not bad at all usually there’s more flexibility and room for advancement if the business is growing.

Same as anywhere else. Just remember the fundamentals...

- Stay out of office politics

- Negotiate your compensation

- Document everything

- Focus on value delivery

It 100% depends on the family. I'd be curious if on average family businesses are better or worse places to work for employees who are outside the family.

It depends on what you want in life.

In my own exposure - they are more loyal. Of course, you're probably not going to get to the top. But that's not what everyone wants.

How about: join a succession of startups some of which work (get bought out) and some of which fail (founder refuses to sell out). At least this guy was somewhat in charge of their own fate.

Having a young family is a double-edged sword. You get your kids out of the way just in time for the most productive years of your career (45-60yrs), but your opportunity to work ceaseless hours as a young person is curtailed.

I’ve lived this life. I wouldn’t trade it in, but I can tell you I don’t think it’s the easy option.

If you don't mind me asking, how would you roughly compare your ROI to the Silicon Valley corporate mean?

Sad

>Those aren’t all of my business failures but they’re some of my most notable ones. And, if you couldn’t tell from 25 years of trying, I’m not ready to stop just yet. You know how I started my family early? Next year I’ll be 45 and an empty nester. There’s no doubt I’ll be building another business soon.

I found that pretty motivating

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