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Comment by gnulinux | Hacker News Reader

What a heartbreaking comment to read:

> Any of us who have had at least two “successful” businesses will tell you that this quote is ridiculous.

> I’ve also failed miserably and had 5-7 business go under or never even really get off the ground.

This means that you incurred (2+) / ((2+) + (5-7)) chance of creating a successful business. This is in the spirit of the OP. Creating a business may involve some skill, but ultimately it's just a lottery. Sometimes you win only because you're lucky. Or something you lose only because you're unlucky. I apologize but I truly do think giving advise like this can be dangerous. Not everyone is as privileged and maybe a single failure can put them in life-long debt, or financial trouble, or homelessness.

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I disagree. I’ve also failed multiple times but achieved what for me is a satisfying level of success in the process.

As a ratio I’ve failed a lot more than I’ve won but it is not a lottery.

It’s more like a golf game, it’s hard to do well but you do learn and improve with each attempt.

That's exactly the lottery. The fact that you can play multiple rounds of "golf" is the privilege that the OP is talking about. You are lucky enough to be able to afford buying multiple lottery tickets and some hit the jackpot.

Most people will never even have the opportunity to afford one lottery ticket.

Then life, not business is the lottery.

The lottery idea works in the sense that I was born in the U.S. rather than a developing country AND my parents, who were far from rich or even stable at times still were able to afford a family computer (thank you Atari 520ST) which was very fortunate since my formal education ended the 3rd time I was expelled from high school.

Yes, from the life perspective, as opposed to a worst-case (even in the U.S) I most certainly am privileged and lucky, and did certainly win a lottery of sorts. You’re absolutely correct.

Having said that, most of us that work in tech have won that same or a similar lottery.

Life, location, family, stability, yes those things are a bit of a lottery.

But not so for startups. Your odds of winning the lottery never increase. Your odds of winning in business do, as long as you learn from your failures.

> As a ratio I’ve failed a lot more than I’ve won but it is not a lottery.

It may not be precisely a lottery, but if most of the successful people are “I’ve failed a lot more thab I’ve won”, then, the ability to afford to fail a lot more than you win.

Especially with the narratives where the failures involve periods of homelessness, etc., possibly mitigate by couch-surfing or other network support—having a network that mitigates in that way is fortune. Surviving homelessness without it in a way that lets you to buy another totally-not-a-lottery-ticket at business? Even more a matter of fortune.

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