Why I Wear a Disco Ball | Hacker News Reader

Why I Wear a Disco Ball

blog.willwashburn.com

75 pointswillwashburn68 comments

My old boss told me this quote and I've always loved it. When the self-made millionaire was asked what he'd do differently if he got to do it all over again, he responded "I'd ask for help."

Awesome quote. Thanks.

Man... I was just told recently by a good friend that I am very good at helping people but bad at asking for help. I guess it's time for introspection...

I kept reading just to understand why anyone would willingly walk around, all the time, looking like this:

http://estb.msn.com/i/AB/E27F92B0A904EC9D92B8EE897D0B4.jpg

I also wondered how he'd eat and talk and sleep. I didn't understand what it had to do with startups and hurricanes.

It took a while until I realized that that's not what "wearing a disco ball" means in NY.

Please do enlighten me. I read the whole post and am still not sure. Searching the web seems to be polluted by a nail polish brand named 'disco ball'. Is it simply slang for not taking oneself too seriously?

I suspect that he has a little disco ball hanger on a necklace or bracelet or something. I'm sure he'll tell us himself soon enough.

Sorry if I'm being obtuse ... you did see the large photograph at the top of this blog post showing the author wearing said disco ball necklace, drinking milk?

http://i.imgur.com/DdeDfzyl.jpg

I had seen the picture, but I had totally missed the necklace. Thank you.

"Is it simply slang for not taking oneself too seriously?"

That kind of works actually. I'll see if I can get it to stick, haha.

Oh wow. My bad.

I meant to say "Disco ball necklace". I helped at a 70s themed charity event and ended up taking some home the weekend before the hurricane.

In the first picture you can see it, but here is a picture of a box of them.

http://distilleryimage5.s3.amazonaws.com/63d4661a4fb911e2aa5...

Related: do people "wear disco balls" like that where you are from?!

This guy is like all the entrepreneurs I've met, mashed together. He even has a blog full of pictures of himself.

Cool story anyway.

The point of my post was to say I need to get over myself. Apparently it's still a work in progress. My b.

Thanks for checking it out.

I enjoyed the pictures; don't listen to the haters. Milk-chugging at a disaster scene was a big enough "WTF" to keep me interested.

Thanks! I didn't notice there were so many at first, but now it does seem kind of vain.

NOW IM QUESTIONING EVERYTHING.

If it helps, I didn't notice that there were so many pictures. I was impressed with your honesty in sharing about your mistakes and shortcomings.

It says a lot about the endurance of the human spirit that in the midst of a catastrophe like Sandy, you still found the inner strength to chug a gallon of milk like a true meathead frat boy and presumably upload it straight to Facebook.

The disco ball is fitting, I think. You should keep wearing it.

Not sure where all this hate is coming from. "meathead frat boy"?

Thanks for having my back!

I can understand how it might look if you don't know me and there's probably a lot of people who thought the same thing.

Looking back, it was just a coping method. In the same way that I make lame jokes when I feel nervous, this was just a reaction to the idea that my life just got flipped upside down.

And I totally posted it directly to instagram. Spade is a spade, I guess.

I seriously don't understand why you're supposed to feel bad about posting 4 pictures of yourself and making a joke photo. It didn't seem that wanky to me, so it's surprising that it was able to inspire this many people to forget about human courtesy and throw childish insults on the interwebs.

I was wondering if maybe these people know you and there's some kind of subtext here or something.

It really is difficult to chug a gallon of milk, don't knock it until you try it.

I see what you're saying though. Thanks for checking it out anyway.

This guy is a real life Ryan Howard. Wow.

Counting the one with his feet in it, he's put 7 pictures of himself on that page.

I mean comon, can we really count the one with my foot in it? 7 sounds waaaaay bigger than 6.

I didn't count the ones where you're in the mirror, you got off easy.

Fair. For real though, is Ryan Howard's character really into himself?

Don't want to be that guy who doesn't get the joke but I am totally the guy who isn't getting the joke.

IS THIS SOMETHING RYAN HOWARD WOULD SAY?!

His character iterates over the different seasons.

I thought it was a mean remark, but maybe I'm just a sensitive blossom.

Howard does work on a startup (in a cupboard) which is pretty funny. And there are definitely worse characters on the Office.

FWIW I really liked your post. You hit all the points that I've found in the past, and you included the Ben Franklin effect too.

Oh, haha ok. My startup had the word "social" in it, so I think some not-so-subtle jabbing is probably deserved.

Appreciate you checking out the post! (and thanks for filling me in on the joke)

Don't forget the favicon.

I don't watch enough TV to get the reference. I bet it was funny though, given the context. Thanks for checking out the post.

Heh, and I thought he was talking about the Phillies slugger. It seems Ryan Howard was the name of a character in the US sitcom "The Office."

The Phillies 1B played himself in the office, IIRC. He pitched some absurd idea to his marketing guys about a movie wherein he was a super hero. Very tongue in cheek, I found it pretty funny.

Ryan Howard was a character that started out as a temp in the office and was on for many seasons of the show. He is not played by or based on Ryan Howard the baseball player. However, in the most recent season Ryan Howard the baseball player does do a cameo appearance on the show. Not confusing at all. I think the former character is what the OP was referring too.

I just read this moments after giving in, allowing my dad to take a 401k loan in exchange for the title to my car (I insisted) to help me pay rent and keep my startup dreams afloat a cpl more months. Humility doesn't come easy for some of us. Thank you for sharing Will. I really needed to read this today.

Glad you read it and got something out of it. Do whatever you can to keep it going. Awesome that you have people to help you .

"Do whatever you can to keep it going" only applies inasmuch as you're not taking advantage of other people to make it happen. The upthread poster taking money from his parents' retirement account to get "a few more months" on his startup and pay rent is not ideal.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but you raise a good point. At what point are people enabling you and at what point are you just being prideful (if you take it or not). Obviously you have to have some discretion, but I've always struggled with that line.

It's kind of like the hippocratic oath - "first, do no harm". You shouldn't be borrowing money from your parents' retirement account to get a few more months on your startup, unless it's a very specific situation.

Agreed. If this is a "I have a signed contract that will give me $Xk next month, if I can just make it to then" situation, sure, go for it. Otherwise, it's (almost definitely) just pissing away someone's money. There's always another way: get a job or freelance for a while and work on the startup on the side, take on funding, whatever.

This makes sense, but I can definitely see how I could get caught up thinking that with just "a few more" months I could get something to happen. By default, don't you have to ignore some data in a startup that says your failing and push on?

Otherwise you'd stop at square 0. I know there is a continuum of bullshitting yourself involved there, but it's certainly a grey area.

Seems like a mentor would be helpful in this kind of situation. I'm envisioning someone who's gone through success and failure, who isn't so emotionally connected with your project, who you can trust with the details even if they aren't flattering or optimistic, and who can help you make some of those judgement calls that get cloudy when you're right in the middle of something. A person like that is hard to find, but I think it's worth looking for.

With all due respect - what is going to change about your startup in the next few months? Things like retirement account loans from your parents are to get you over a rare and unexpected setback in an otherwise exciting curve. Otherwise, you're just borrowing other people's money who need it (i.e. these are not wealthy individuals taking a risk with money they can afford to lose).

Bahahah. Let me clarify, I've been managing peons like yourself since high school. I've already climbed the six figure ladder. The view wasn't to my liking. See I decided to quit & build products designed for social good, hence why I turned down a CIO role at a bank last week & turned down $125k work-from-home contract at Wells Fargo today. I can make money anytime I return a headhunters voicemail. Maybe that's why my parents are cool with the risk. Go ahead Google me, my resume speaks for itself.

Your attitude isn't very appealing.

You should consider finding other ways to express yourself.

Usually I dance

Yikes.

I tried to. I did not find anything. And even if I did, you are easily the biggest tool I've seen on HN yet.

What's up with http://daft.ws/ ?

Your attitude speaks for itself too.

I'm so sorry for your father.

Why would you assume I'm a peon? Or that I haven't climbed the six figure ladder? In fact, you don't know anything about me, why would you react this way?

One of the things you learn as you get a little more maturity is that: a) it never pays to be rude or uncivil to anyone you don't personally know, b) no matter how much of a hot shit you think you are, you will look like a giant douchebag when you try to pull it on other people, c) there's always the possibility that you are wildly wrong.

You actually hit on all three of those points in this particular situation. Good luck with your startup.

Liked the story! Curious though, why are you living on the UES, when you can live in Brooklyn for half the price?

UES is cheaper than Brooklyn now.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044357090457754...

Whoa damn! I knew Williamsburg was 'up-and-coming' when I lived there but that appears to have changed a lot in the last 5 years. Gentrification at it's finest.

We were living on the upper...upper east side. We might have been able to find a cheaper apartment in the bronx, but FWIW I was paying less in the last apartment than I was when I was living in Charlotte, NC.

It was a good trade off between being close enough to the "scene" and far enough away where it was cheap enough.

I haven't read the post, just these comments. Easily the strangest comments I've seen in the past 4-6 months.

so will, what are you upto now? would love to read a follow up post.

I spent the few months doing what I described in the post - pretending it didn't happen. It's amazing what you can convince yourself of.

When I finally decided I was being an idiot, I started to focus on finding a job. It was way harder than I thought it would be (there is a theme of being arrogant here - another post another day).

I'm now working at a startup as a software + product guy. Learning from some really smart people and loving it so far. In lots of ways, the storm was the best thing to happen to me.

I can only say that because I really have a lot of great people around me. It made me appreciate all the opportunities I've been given and can sympathize more with people who haven't had the same support.

Thanks for checking out the post.

So you gave up your dreams?

I was hoping for a story about how you found investments in your own startup.

Perhaps he's just looking for a different route to get to his dreams?

100%, thanks.

There is more than one way to skin the old meow meow. Getting over myself enough to realize that was the big take away from all this.

The dream is still very much alive.

There is more than one path, and admitting that I could use some help and a few tips here or there from the people who have already found success was a big lesson for me from the last 6 months.

If you succeed, it's success. If you fail, it's experience towards success.

Fair enough. I just hate it when people give up their dreams.

Pics with the disco ball!

There are plenty haha! I have a few extras if you want one.

For those, like me, that didn't notice it at first, its a very small one on a chain around his neck. I think.

Dear Will,

Are you gay? Inquiring minds want to know.

No, sorry.

Unfortunate. I'd like to be with you, and I'm straight. :-P

(Thought I'd take the opportunity to make a lame joke.)

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