Why I Didn't Get A Real Job

We talked quite a lot during the weekend and he told me his life story.

Turned out he had wanted all his life to become an inventor (that's why he was there). It wasn't until he was close to retirement that he managed to make a deal with his employer (the same one all his life) and he got enrolled in to some sort of education program for inventors.

All his life he wanted to be an inventor but he couldn't until he was at the brink of retirement.

Our generation, on the other hand, has all the opportunities in the world to shape our own lives. It has never been easier to build a life and an income around your passion. We have opportunities that Per-Otto couldn't even dream about in his younger days.

And yet so many people still choose not to pursue their dreams. What a waste.

Something must be broken. The education system? The working environment? Our culture? I don't know. I only know that things need to change. Questioning the need for "a real job" is a good start.

EDIT: Here he is, btw, drawing one of his inventions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikstarck/4509754873/in/set-72...

If the 'startup' succeeded, likely that person isn't going to be applying to a job in the first place. If it failed, there's likely going to be difficulty for that person to really understand why it failed ("I just needed 6 more months of runway!" or "People are just too stupid to get what I was doing!"). The 'startup' person is far more likely to bail in the next year to pursue their next startup idea.

This notion that people will be far more willing to hire a failed 21 year old 'startup addict' because of the experiences gained is an odd one, and something I suspect they use either as a justification to parents/friends, and probably don't actually believe it themselves. "I'll prove my value to future employers by demonstrating my lack of respect for established authority and contempt for organizational hierarchy (unless I'm at the very tip top of it)".

I'm sure people will be falling over themselves to offer you top management jobs after your "social todo facebook widget android app" fails because it ran out of funding. Come to think of it, this is probably a perfect game plan for silicon valley. :)

EDIT: Before someone points out that I too am a grumpy old timer, I'd simply prefer to see the OP actually doing something worthwhile with fetchnotes. Perhaps, you know, actually work on the startup. Writing blog posts about how you can't work for other people because you don't take orders, or how you argued with your dad about morality... none of these are "working on your startup" - they're just self-absorbed rants.

EDIT2: There's loads of options in between 'startup' and 'internship'. Some of us, you know, actually had real paying jobs during college. What would an employer want to choose of those three? Someone who understands that providing value to a company leads to an actual paycheck, someone who failed at a startup, or someone who went for 'brandname' status? I know which one I'd choose.

The term "startup" is thrown around WAY too much these days, you aren't a start up, you have no business model, you are basically just a multi contributor blog. What are you doing that other student publications aren't?

When you say "If you have a game-changing idea" do you honestly thing NSU is "game-changing"? What game are you changing?

You come across as incredibly entitled and arrogant in your post, I hope for the sake of the success of any future "start ups" you participate in, it's not the case.

"I have no deference to authority figures and have never been shy to voice my opinions, oftentimes to my detriment." This doesn't make you a good entrepreneur, it makes you an asshole.

Older generations consider the gen Y age group to be entitled, spoilt, lacking commitment, and generally impatient with regards to earning their place in the world.

When you combine this with the "new startup" - cheap, glamorous, very low barrier to entry for the technically adept, then it's easy to see where the conflict comes from. Twenty-somethings see the perfect opportunity to jump into the booming tech startup area by themselves where they have a huge advantage - being both born with the web and often still in the safety net of college or the very early stages of their career. Older generations never had this type of opportunity, and simply don't think the younger people have deserved or earned it.

Personally I think that there is no better time to do your own thing and be innovative than your early twenties, and that conventional workplaces eventually erode the type of skills needed for a startup; of course, then there is the other issue - if building a startup is like jumping off a cliff and making a parachute on the way down, is someone still a "real" entrepreneur if there is a safety net at the bottom?

Hope that attitude isn't reflected in his option grants to his first hires.

Anyhow, Alex talks about lack of "deference" to authority, but what he really lacks is respect for authority. This is pretty common with high-spirited teenagers, and it's often really useful to society as they challenge the status quo. It can be a nuclear reactor powering "impossible" visions with the right person.

It's also really annoying.

I bet this guy is a blast at parties.

Definitly not a physics major. Not math either probably considering he used a two digit number in the first place.