Oh yay, another post like this.
> Running a startup is hard work. No-one disputes that. But if you are in the position to run your own startup you are incredibly lucky. There are a lot of people out there that might be far better entrepreneurs than you, but because they weren't born into a situation that gave them a good education and the ability to take a risk, they never will.
Nobody is born into a situation that ~20 years later destine them to run a startup.
The type of person who takes charge of their life, also takes charge of their education, you cannot learn some of the skills it takes to be a self made person.
Risk appetite isn't something predetermined at birth, and it isn't learned from someones environment. You can develop the ability to take risk from surrounding yourself with successful people, just as easily as you develop it from having nothing left to lose, and realizing how much you've been overestimating your worst case scenarios.
> Running a startup is stressful, but don't try to pretend that there aren't enormous upsides. You can do whatever you want, you can work with whomever you want.
If what you want to do is work and focus on success, then you can do whatever you want, but there are plenty of moments where you will want to be doing something else. This is called self-discipline, its just like the discipline normal people are subjected to, if you ignore it, you lose your job, or your startup fails.
> How many other people in the world can do that?
Not as many as I would like. There are organizations like Kiva that aim to give those less fortunate an opportunity, and hopefully more pop up that make it even easier.
> The guy earning minimum wage in his factory job, spending all his salary just to keep out of poverty- if he fails, he is fired, and he and his family are screwed. He is the person whose face is much more likely to be covered in actual dust and sweat and blood.
He can also get another factory job. Try failing a startup and just starting another, its going to be a lot harder than pounding the pavement and submitting resumes.
> Being in this industry is a position of extreme privilege. Harping on about it as if it's a heavy burden to bear is utter nonsense and only helps the perception of "startup folk" as deeply out of tune with how the rest of the world works.
Anyone harping on it as a burden has the wrong attitude, and frankly I would be surprised if they lasted.
It is definitely not extreme privilege. These companies don't just start themselves and adopt whoever has the winning ticket. You have to have a good idea, and you have to be willing to act on it.
Many people have good ideas, and could grow a successful business out of their idea, but they have the wrong ideas about what is stopping them, so they never try. These people come from the same communities as any startup founder. The difference is a founder dares to challenge the beliefs that have been crammed down their throat, even if everyone around them insists its a bad idea.