PAULHANNA84

Very well put! Nice! :)

+ Hey do you take paypal? - Yeah...actually I do... + Nice...so let's bump phones and then bump uglies! + Oh...can you put "consulting fee" in the notes....this is a business expense...

Anyone who knows the functionality of HN (I would expect a hacker to) knows that you could choose/upvote multiple answers.

Minus the under 10, I think there is some truth in the pattern from the point of 16+. Hacker News/Y combinator primarily attracts entrepreneurs,hackers,engineers...people who are constantly learning based on self-interest. 26 is the average age for a Y Combinator alumni and 26-30 is also the majority of users in this toll. Essentially what I'm trying to say is I think this is a reflection of ambition dwindling with age based on the general overall population.

That's good to hear. My friend was recently in India some months ago and when visiting he was delegated a servant which he didn't even ask for or want. The kid was not even allowed to sit on the couches! Sad.

India has many wonderful things to offer but my biggest issue in that country would be the cast system. The untouchables! I think it's awful that any human is deemed less than human at the point of birth. Awful!

They're always lawyered up because they have lawyers on payroll.

This is one of those decisions that really depends on the individual making them. You really have to go with what you feel makes you the happiest. For me, entrepreneurship is the only option. For the last 10 years since I was 18 I've been a business owner. It has been quite the roller coaster as well. In that time I have experienced living in a fancy loft in Hollywood to being homeless and living in my car for a month. From working 6+ months 12-15 hour days and making no revenue to having 12 employees on pay-roll bringing in $100k monthly gross sales with a nice chunk being profit. Regardless of the ups and downs there was always this consistent happiness which seemed to be backed by hope and passion. Even while living in my car and having to take showers at the gym to then go to Starbucks to access internet in order to work on the business I was building, I was still happy, and seemed happier than most.

Most people, even with an entrepreneurial spirit will choose comfort over risk and reward. That's all fine, it's just for me I find comfort to be the cousin of death. Comfort in the sense of not worrying about how to live is good. I'm talking about comfort in regards to losing purpose in life. Living a lifestyle where you're kind of just "wingin' it". Those are traits I don't foresee myself having regardless of whatever dollar amount I'm worth.

Some don't understand passion and don't know how to put an appraisal value on it. Your previous co-workers might have found you to be wreckless or not taking life seriously, when in fact you're taking life far more serious than they are.

I think you're doing the right thing. Forget the safety net, it's going to slow you down. It's going to keep you from pushing yourself to the limit.

I wish you luck in your endeavors and..."Stay Thirsty My Friend" :)

Being an introvert is soo cool these days. Sometimes I try and act like one at start-up meetings so people can assume I have great ideas! hahah j/k. I would consider myself a hybrid! :)

lol, what's funny is as I was commenting I thought the same thing "An APPARATUS that contains no more than 18 wheels and no less than 2." and at the gas pump we would see fuel tax and a patent tax! lol

Quote frankly I'm getting sick of the work apparatus!

Patenting inevitable software functionality is just soo odd to me. It's awful that companies like Soverain software who obtained shopping cart patents were able to go after companies such as Amazon and settle because the cost of battling simply wasn't worth it. To say one cannot have an online shopping cart is as crazy as saying "You can't have a cash register in your brick and mortar store."

Seems ok but I would stick with Axure for wireframes and prototyping.

Your work looks good! Keep it up! Try sourcing projects on odesk, guru, elance, freelance. You work is surely hire-able. Love hearing about a 16 year old designer who's out looking for freelance work! You've got a bright future!

Senior developer based out of an Eastern European country where the dollar stretches out well! :)

Maybe they did a good job at rejecting your application, and this is my assumption based on this posting of yours. You fired back because your ego was hit. You're going to have to refine your ego if you ever plan on running a successful business.

Too many wantrepreneurs is complicating the filtration process there :)

Also on a serious note: I'm not sure this post is going to help you get in. You might be thinking so but I might say that it could set you back a bit. PG can't deposit your passion in the bank. He's out to find great scalable ideas that can be turned into profitable businesses being run by efficient and smart people.

YC is not some kind of beauty pageant and it's not a make or break situation for your business. Posting up the rejection letter in your office? Don't be obsessed with Ycom. If you make it, that's great, you can get a lot of good resources and you've essentially got the seal of approval from angel investors. If Not? No big deal! Build the product, bring it to market, get active users and make sure that it's a profitable business that can stay profitable even at a scaling point. If you do this much, you'll get good attention and will find yourself raising seed money.

I read your post and it reminds me of how I was at the age of 18 when I started my first business. At 18 I had grossed over $100k on eBay within a single year but at the time they were hypersensitive to any wrong doings and I ended up getting kicked off the site for a few months. I wanted to handcuff myself to their front entrance door until they reinstated my account. hahaha! Ahhh wreckless passion...the good ol days! :)

They surely don't read the entire application unless it's appealing. Some applications scream "fail" within the first minute. I read an article from one of the partners stating what they look for and they did mention that if an application doesn't look appealing, they won't finish reading it. I mean...why would they? You should be clean and concise while not over saturating them with detail.

CEO...sure, but how about a founder? Entrepreneur? CEO who is the original founder? I could guarantee the figures are far different.

Too much argument over this. Yes, for the majority of individuals over working is going to physically, mentally and emotionally drain them as they're generally trying to balance a separate life. The individual who wrote this article stated that he has a wife. Perhaps spending less time with his wife had some repercussions associated to it. Perhaps he likes his business but isn't completely in love with it. You can't really speak for everyone, that's for sure. It all depends on your purpose, your motive. What's your driving force? Why are you conducting business to begin with? I myself am a business owner and have been working non-stop for the last 10 years (from 18-28). When I'm not working, I'm still mentally engaged. I don't unplug or clock out. To me, it reminds me of when I was a child addicted to gaming. I would blissfully spend 12 hours playing my Sega or Super Nintendo in pursuit to beat whatever game was at hand. When I was at school I was thinking of ways to beat the level that I might have been stuck on for a few days. This is called passion, it's rare but it does exist so although I appreciate the article, I must ask to not advise everyone this same idea.

Thanks Scott, glad to be here :)

Would it even be in the best interest for UPS or FedEx to compete in the letter mailing service sector? It seems to be more of a cursed Monopoly than anything else which is why USPS is now aggressively pursing the package delivery business. I think the post office is doing a great job with innovating and outsourcing some of their business to private sector companies. For brick and mortar's they've become much better in offering opportunities such as UPS and FedEx franchise stores. They now have computer kiosks at most post offices allowing you to easily print labels and ship a package. They've teamed up with many online postage vendors such as mail.com and endicia.com. A big part of eBay's business and ecommerce in general for small items comes from USPS flat rate shipments which tend to be a substantial discount in comparison to UPS or FedEx. Even if money is lost in order to continue first-class, it's still a necessity. In total, people are not ready to go completely paperless anytime soon. By the time that happens I see USPS being just as robust if not more so than the private sector carriers. I'm a major advocate for private sector business as its nature is to turn a profit thus requiring innovation and motivation to do so but these days it seems that gov. sector entities are getting smarter by allowing partnerships with private sector entities. They're almost becoming hybrid models (Gov/Private).

It's really nice to see entrepreneurs caring enough about other entrepreneurs failed endeavors to offer a helping hand. It's common for an entrepreneur to feel alone. We're a rare breed and sometimes hard to understand by others who have never experienced owning a business or building a startup.

I myself have started and owned 4 different businesses in the last 10 years, from the age of 18 to now being 28. Each lasting anywhere from 2-3 years, 2 of which I failed, the 3rd which I sold and the 4th which I still currently own.

Every failed endeavor was a pierce in the heart and a devastating experience. Every failed endeavor required some downtime in order to evaluate what went wrong and in order to rebuilding my confidence. Through it all I can now boast in my failures. They've refined my ego, they've turned reckless ambition into fine tuned ambition. I've learned more from my failures than I have learned from my successes.

I feel that I now carry a protective shield containing knowledge and experience which help me through not just my business endeavors but as well as my life endeavors. Our Ego's play a big role in how we feel/react when things go right or wrong. It's common that an entrepreneur wants to project success at all times, and there is nothing wrong with that, you should, but it's the way you project it that could be faulty. It's common to see entrepreneurs "fake it until they make it". I also see some entrepreneurs personalities made up of a mix of condescending demeanor's and know it all attitudes. You don't have to always be right. You should always be humble enough to accept critique, to constantly learn. Your happiness should be based on the fact that you are constantly learning and conducting, not how far away you are from a multi-million dollar exit or your companies profitability. Don't get me wrong, that is the main purpose of your companies existence, but it shouldn't be yours. Obviously a company is in the business of making money and should conduct its decision making based on those goals but the best businesses/products/services created are from those who are genuinely interested in what they're building. Money cannot buy passion, but passion can buy money.

Don't let anger be the motive. You're not out to prove others wrong, you're not up against the world. It's easy for entrepreneurs to end up with a chip on their shoulder as being an entrepreneur is being a part of a rare breed that is not always understood well by others. The more you share your ideas with individuals who don't understand business, the more you open doors to the non-believers, who then are perceived as "haters". This all ends up being a waste of time and energy. The less refined your ego is, the more devastating the hit will be. Stay humble, stay modest and work like no other. Your work should come effortlessly. Office hours should feel like gaming hours. It's fun...all of it. The obstacles, the profits, the challenges, the levels...it's all a game. If your time spent doesn't feel anything close to that then perhaps you should reevaluate what it is that you're doing and why. Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle, if it's not your style, then it's not your style. Regardless of the potential money made you'll never be happy if it's a life you're not interested in living and happiness should be the ultimate goal above all else.

-Paul Hanna