Things I’d Tell My 21 Year Old Entrepreneurial Self | Hacker News Reader

Things I’d Tell My 21 Year Old Entrepreneurial Self

jonbischke.com

110 pointsjbischke41 comments

Being 21 I'd say the last point about 'Give the big middle finger to the good or bad opinion of others' is really solid advice. Every time I tell a parent/relative/family friend that I'm working for myself after I graduate I get this blank stare and then a "why don't you work for Google or something?"

I guess in ten years I'll have to reflect and see how all this outrageous risk turns out.

Speaking from experience with risk-taking in terms of starting one's own business: do it, it's worth it. The major potential pitfall along the way is too much stress. It's dangerous because it can lead you down the wrong path. I've found that even if you're business doesn't grow as fast as you want you'll learn really valuable lessons and be in a great position to do other things as long as you're not over-stressed.

Just a random question, I'm curious to hear people's opinions. Wouldn't moving to Bolivia for a year, quietly making connections, and figuring out how to smuggle 10kg of the best cocaine back to the US qualify as risk taking according to the article?

Yes. But would it qualify as 'surround yourself with others you want to be like?' Do you want to be like your typical drug smuggler? Do they have happy endings? ;)

To your first 2 questions - maybe? I have read a few books about drug smugglers, and they're often quite interesting people. I've certainly met some entrepreneurial types I didn't at all like, plus there's plenty of them out there who basically get screwed (down rounds, recapitalization, etc). Assuming entrepreneurship always leads to happy endings seems to be a common fallacy.

And while we always hear about the entrepreneurs who succeed, we always hear about the drug smugglers who fail. It's difficult to estimate proportions in both cases.

The guys who are worth telling popular stories about are the 'good guy' exceptions. The typical large-scale cocaine trafficker is not a nice person.

That being said, you're probably about as likely to get busted as you are to go broke, but at least in a startup you just lose all your money.

This is a good point. We just lack the data to make any predictions whether going the "road less traveled by" leads to success (whatever that means) and assume that "all the difference" equals good (whereas it's rather neutral).

[1] Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken (http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html)

The article does say, "I’m not talking stupid risks. But smart, calculated ones." :)

If you succed you are basically set for life. If you fail you loose 4-6 years of your life. How is that different from a startup?

In startup, if you fail you dont lose 4-6 years of your life. Moreover people wont consider you a failure if you fail in a startup, as opposed to say landing up in a prison.

This is such a stupid comment, I don't know where to begin. Possible attacks on your argument:

1. "set for life" - not necessarily, plus you would have to sell the drugs, etc.

2. just lose 4-6 years of your life - criminal penalties likely greater

3. horrible effects of prison on your psyche and future work possibilities

4. possible death from involvement w/ criminal underworld

5. with a start-up you get transferable experience

Other reasons why this is a stupid comment:

1. Learn to spell succeed

2. Learn to spell lose

If you are not a native speaker, I apologize for #1 but #2 can be corrected with a spellcheck plugin. But it seems like you just typed quickly without thinking your comment through.

Heroine is worth 10 times more. Pick your merchandise right.

The effort and jail time is the same, the profits much much better.

It's interesting that I didn't get the one answer that I was fishing for - that entrepreneurship involves a desire to make the world a better place. I guess that is debatable.

You asked about risk-taking, not entrepreneurship.

I can look back and see a lot of great relationships I made with co-workers "being in the trenches" together. And a perspective you wouldn't necessarily get if you were put in a management position from the get-go.

I definitely need to work on that specific point. I tend to look for validation from others in what I'm doing and also to compare myself to other people around, like seeing where they are in life relative to their age and mine...

Yeah, I definitely need to stop worrying about that :)

I'm reading an outstanding book that addresses this issue. It's called "Your Erroneous Zones" by Wayne Dyer. The general theme of the book is "Break Free from Negative Thinking".

I especially like the point about you become like the people you hang around with.

Curiously, I first read that quote in the page of a bodybuilder trainer. It really is famous.

I'd tell myself to read Steve Blank's '4 Steps to the Epiphany' and never waste time trying to raise money or build a product nobody wanted to pay for. Would have saved me years of wasted time.

http://www.cafepress.com/kandsranch.58024175

Its not a pay link, I'm just a groupie. This book contains everything I've learned in the last 8 years and then some. Of course, the book wasn't written until I was 25.

Better to buy it from here, 10 bucks less

http://www.cafepress.com/kandsranch.58024175

cafepress sells books?

Thanks, updated my comment.

I'm familiar with the basics of the customer development process (c/o Eric Ries's blog, of IMVU), and intend to read the book soon. But one question is -- how do you come up with an idea for a product people want to pay for?

I generally come up with my ideas via my own needs (disclaimer: I have yet to make my millions...) - these ideas tend to be within a realm that I understand deeply, and thus I'm in a unique position to execute better than random other hacker down the street.

Not to mention that, as a consumer of the product, you'd be more in touch with the needs of the product and where it needs to go.

By asking them if they'll pay for it, and iterating until you come up with something they will?

"never waste time trying to raise money or build a product nobody wanted to pay for."

I have to (somewhat) disagree.

The problem with Steve Blank's advice (and I say this as someone who thinks it is very good advice) is that the more innovative/ game transforming companies don't get created this way.

"By asking them if they'll pay for it, and iterating until you come up with something they will?"

Take Google. If in the hey day of Lycos and Alta Vista and all those vanished search engine companies, Larry and Sergei had started looking for "customers" and "asking them if they'll pay for it", they would never have built Google.

"Would you like better search" "yeah sure" "So how much will you pay for it?" "Uhh ...Nothing".

Sometimes the "how to make money" becomes obvious after you make something cool.

Steve's advice is good for a certain kind of startup. Not all of them.

That said, the book is (very) worth reading as long as you don't blindly accept everything he says. I for one found parts of the book too "marketing organization" centric. Which is all right, because I as a discerning reader am supposed to think for myself.

Thanks for all the great comments on the article everyone. As an aside, for those interested in customer development I wrote up an article a while back with a ton of links to blog posts, podcasts, etc.

http://jonbischke.com/2009/03/20/customer-development-the-de...

Hope this helps some folks.

I'm 21 and live my life pretty much the way the OP suggests, but already I'm having many regrets.

I spend a lot of time on things that interest me and my grades are in the hole. The university has taken back my scholarships. My classmates that do well in the coursework earn more money in scholarships than I do working all summer.

I'm not particularly employable. I've failed to find any work or internships because I don't know C# or Java. Although you may say "those aren't the people you want to work for anyways" rejection is hard and I've been forced to do menial labor to survive.

I find my life is very stressful and my greatest worry is: "What if you worked really hard for 10 years and nothing came out of it?" In my experience it hasn't paid off to buck the boat.

That's why his qualifying of his advice of taking risk is excellent. Take risk sure, but not stupid risk. I know now you have passed the time, but in your case to apply the advice would have been: spend time on your start up sure, but don't ignore your degree, things do go wrong more often than not and to have a safety net is not a bad idea at all.

I think I would tell my 21 year old hacker self to consider the possibility of getting more involved in the business side of things sooner than he ended up doing, and to consider the possibility of striking out on his own.

> getting more involved in the business side of things sooner

Yes times one thousand.

Being 21 I can't help but feel quite useless. I'm still working to get out of my university and future doesn't seem to be really bright, although perhaps it's just my mind playing tricks to me. But the mere fact that someone like me is (or was, when he was 21) already established in some position, even if "just" in the position of being independently bringing in money, kind of seems to set the bar too high.

Below is some tough love because I have your best interests at heart:

1. "Being 21 I can't help but feel quite useless. I'm still working to get out of my university and future doesn't seem to be really bright, although perhaps it's just my mind playing tricks to me."

How do you feel useless? Are you depressed or do you suffer from low self esteem? If you're posting on HN, you surely possess some sort of tech-related skill set. So you aren't useless. Moreover, you have internet access, and thus have the capacity to expand that skill set. Bam. Your mind is indeed playing tricks on you.

2. "But the mere fact that someone like me is (or was, when he was 21) already established in some position, even if 'just' in the position of being independently bringing in money, kind of seems to set the bar too high."

This is nonsense. What does what someone else did have anything at all to do with you? At all? The only possible explanation is that VCs won't ever give you money if you haven't accomplished Serious Things by age 21, but this is not true. You've got to stop comparing yourself to others. The only time comparing yourself to others is possibly useful is when it motivates you to work even harder. But, it seems that is not the case; you aren't working harder, you are just complaining. So stop comparing yourself!

Bottom line-you have some university education and internet access. The world is at your fingertips.

The world is at your fingertips

And you will never find out what part of the world your fingers should work on until you get down and dirty and actually try stuff rather than just complain.

I have a friend, he is my age and he manages to keep up with so many stuff from directing to explorations in Egypt, I see that only as someone to be admired and if he can do it then sure so can I. I envy him of course, but I am sure he envies me about some stuff too. I guess there are many ways to succeed, graduating for many is one such way, for the guys here I think what success is, is spending time efficiently and constructively, preferably in some niche.

Ditto. There is bountiful opportunity in the world for those who just open their eyes.

In the words of a sage, "Time is short, work is great, workers are lazy, the reward is great and the master is pressing." In the world there is a high demand and low supply of making this world we live in a better, more productive place. Those that help that get done will reap its rewards.

Good Luck. Open your eyes.

I think this advice shouldn't be taken too seriously by most, as it is too centered on this particular person and his employment of hindsight.

1. I’m not talking stupid risks. But smart, calculated ones.

And the problem is: when you're 21 and have never started a company, you don't yet have the experience and knowledge to judge the risks properly. This point is based on hindsight, which just just don't have when these decisions are to be made.

2. Literally everyone worth a damn complains they wasted time early in life. You know what: I think it's because that 'wasted' time is an essential part of what made you who you are. You consider it wasted, because you didn't learn anything tangible in those times. But learning isn't all about tangible skills. Denoting that time as 'wasted' means you haven't looked closely enough into what that time actually brought you. Consequently, you don't actually have that much time to 'nail the fundamentals'.

On the side, about the typing speed fallacy: I spend most of my time behind the keyboard thinking, not typing and I hope you're doing the same, otherwise what you are typing isn't worth a damn.

3. Depends very much on the person that you are. Some excel when they are surrounded by unbelieving critics. Others are best when those around them don't pester them continously about 'succeeding'

4. Basically the same as 1: you don't know your 'bliss' yet when you start out. Moreover, your 'bliss' changes with time. You are basically encouraging your 21 year old self to follow a bliss he didn't consider bliss yet.

5. And again: hindsight. When you are older, you know that your opinion was the right one, but how many wrong ones were corrected by good advice from others? When looking back, you're bound to suffer from confirmation bias, only considering those opinions of which you now regret that you let them be influenced. Was that really the important majority?

This is why I took a year off college at 19 to start a starter company. It was like running your first marathon: you want to win, but you know you probably won't. But you need the experience. In my case, everyone I talked to was pretty excited about what I had so far, but I didn't have the tech chops to take things to the next level. Now I'm returning to college to get better tech skills.

Re: typing speed, I hear that argument a lot, and I agree that it makes sense when talking about programming. However, if you can't type fast, you can't use a command line effectively, and you're going to spend a lot of time pointing and clicking.

It's not clear whether the author of the article was talking about improving from 50 wpm to 70 wpm or from hunt-and-peck to 50 wpm. The second is probably a clear gain for everyone.

Here's what I'd tell my 21 year old self. I say this as a 27 year old who now knows he doesn't know it all but knows enough to realize what bits he got wrong:

Listen to your gut, all the time. Tell the truth to a fault. Find one thing you could be #1 at. Hammer at it. Keep doing it. Act like you're the best but don't talk crap about it. Act big and talk small. Be quick to accept criticism humbly, then be quick to ignore it if you know you're right. Things always change, things always get better AND get worse, and things are really never as great or as bad as they seem at the time.

My big regret has always been listening to other people and ignoring my gut feeling. Two years ago I "knew" in my gut buying property was a bad idea, kept saying "what goes up MUST come down", and enough people wore me down saying that property "never" goes down that I felt like an idiot NOT to buy.. now we know how that ended up ;-) I still listen to other people's bullshit, but I no longer give it credence unless my gut is willing.

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