“Why I Declined An Offer To Work At Instagram” Via Quora
techcrunch.com
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For those of you who think money is the only thing that matters, go make a good bit of it then see if it changes your life so dramatically like you think it will.
The reality is unless you're an asshole money does not change you much at all. And if you're an entrepreneur it's not gonna make you stop from moving on to the next big idea either.
It's easy to sit on one said and say "you know he's actually upset about this" but until you've sat on the other side of things and realized he has a job he loves at a company he truly believes in you're probably better off saying nothing at all.
Just my $.02
This is kind of predicated on you not hurting for money now. If you're fighting to pay off $100,000 worth of medical bills, or trying to figure out how to move to a different state for a job without getting totally hosed on a house you bought six months ago, money could make one hell of a difference.
I promise you there were a few occasions in my life where I had to choose between toilet paper and toothpaste. My employees had no idea how bad I was struggling and had I ever let it on they probably would have jumped ship. I found a way to make it through those stuggles where most people would have quit.
It's easy for people to say "Life's easier when you dont have to worry about paying off debt etc." what most of those people forget is that the ones of us who dont have those worries now probably had them just as bad or worse than you can imagine at some point.
The media loves to talk about the rosy side of startups but they never print the article talking about the guys with stories like mine.
At one point I literally took a job selling cars on the weekend just to be able to keep paying my employees and losing money on my business. Everyone I knew told me to quit, but I was just young enough and just dumb enough that I wouldn't. I believed in myself, my company and my employees too much to just give up.
If I had listened to my friends and parents I would have quit, finished school and got a job in the rat race worrying about paying off those student loans.
Instead I got it profitable and ended up selling the company.
Unlike the poster below thinks though I don't have 40 free hours a week these days. I am working to build the next big thing because this is in my blood, its what I love to do and I'll be damned if money (in any direction) is going to be a factor in making my life turn out the way I want.
Or the ones who get lucky.
> <personal anecdote>
I'm really glad things worked out for you. But it's still a personal anecdote. (On the gripping hand, I fully admit that I do not have your drive, and I would have failed where you succeeded; so maybe there's something to it after all. How much did luck play in your success?)
I'd say in my case, as with most anyone's I was very lucky and we all have to be to have a story like mine, but I am still a firm believer in great people making their own luck.
Call me crazy if you like, its just how I feel. I didn't grow up with money, I didn't go to the nicest schools or have the best teachers but I had a ton of drive and the will to succeed.
I suspect this is what the poster below meant by having 40 free hours a week. If someone handed me a billion dollars I would probably take a bit more vacation than now, but quite working? No way! I have a million ideas. I'd like to do as many as possible in the time I have.
People often assume that money will change a person for the better if it does at all... I have learned that that is seldom the case.
I have known people who went from literally not knowing where their next meal would come from to being very comfortable(some would say stinking rich-it depends in where you assign value) and frankly: they were better people before the money. More in touch, greater empathy... I valued those thugs about them.
Morrissey actually put it very well: "...in the day when you were hopelessly poor I just liked you more."
Further, I would not want to work for Facebook for any amount of money. I personally dont' value their service, even though many do, and would feel that I was wasting my short life time.
Finally, I would not have bet on them earning that much in a buyout and think that it's a result of a current bubble more than anything else. I suspect that looking back, their purchase will be a prime example of the 2010-201? bubble.
For any amount? I'd even work for the Koch brothers for, say, $10m/yr. Of course I'll be gone from their company and the entire rat race after a year, but still.
If I had enough money to live comfortably off of the return on my investments, my life would change in at least the following ways:
- 1.5 hours extra in my day from not sitting in traffic commuting to work (moving somewhere closer to work will cost me money I need to save)
- 8 hours extra in my day where I'm not deciphering and rewriting legacy code at work (sure I could quit my job and live off savings while I work on my startup but unless I'm damn lucky with growth I'd run out of money and have to seek outside investment and lose equity; I'd rather save for now and retain full ownership)
- I'd live where I choose to, in the house I want to live in, not just somewhere near to work
- I'd wake up being free to do what I want all day long, not having to sell 8 hours of my time to somebody else with the hope one day I'll be successful enough to spend my days doing the things I really want to do (things that won't necessarily pay the bills or fund my retirement, or potential medical bills, or my children's education and health etc.)
- I'd go for that eye operation so I can stop wearing these damn glasses
- I'd be free to travel whenever I like rather than currently having to trade-off working for future financial security if I choose to travel
This is just off the top of my head. Those are pretty dramatic quality of life changes in my opinion.
While i do believe there are people out there who are not motivated by money, to me claiming "..money doesn’t make much of a difference... most of it’s gone. I’m kind of glad it is." smells of cognitive dissonance.
[1] http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/facebook-buys-instagr...
So let's say he was hired. Maybe his engineering decisions send Instagram on another trajectory - one that doesn't involve a billion dollar exit. Maybe his impact on candidate interviews causes Instagram to end up with an entirely different-looking engineering team, one that isn't as successful. Maybe he develops considerable influence within the organization, and convinces the founders to take an earlier exit.
This isn't a knock against Robert. This is just suggesting that things could have played out entirely differently were he onboard - even if he was by every measure a successful employee.
(Haven't checked, but assuming they're licensed under Creative Commons?)
[1] http://www.quora.com/How-does-Forbes-decide-which-Quora-answ...
Also, now I know why @Quora retweets the Forbes versions so often! (It always aggravates me, personally - I usually click through to the Quora version so I can see other replies, votes, comments, etc.)