
Some lessons learned - jeffmiller
http://cdixon.org/2011/09/28/some-lessons-learned/
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MatthewB
>>If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious
enough.<<

This is a crucial piece of advice. A few months ago I remember Jeff Bezos
caught some flack because Amazon wasn't failing enough, which lead people to
think Amazon wasn't taking enough risks. Although I disagree with that
analysis of Amazon, the core concept is still true.

It's also refreshing to see that Chris Dixon was rejected a ton before
becoming successful. I get rejected on a daily basis and to be honest - it
takes a lot out of me. However, when I read something like this it makes me
realize all of this rejection is worthwhile and part of finding my way to
success.

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Swizec
Relevant xkcd comic on avoiding the most obvious upward next step:
<http://xkcd.com/761/>

_Trying out a lot of things for a bit before commiting_ also seems to be the
approach we use as children, I wonder why we forget about it once we're about
20.

~~~
parallel
I think it's because we start to feel more pressure to succeed and to succeed
quickly, so we stop playing and tinkering.

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badclient
_1\. If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t
ambitious enough_

Easier said than balanced, I'd say. I've tried to do things that almost
exclusively get me rejected. Sure it fulfills the above. But looking back, it
did more to hurt my operational life than make me progress.

Just wanted to point out that you _can_ be rejected too much at which point it
may help to score a small victory here and there.

~~~
keeptrying
Can u share the exact experience you had? I always view this advice to be true
when the people your asking stuff from don't know each other and can't talk
about u... Ie it would work well in dating and in job interviews but it
wouldn't work well in say angel funding int valley where everyone knows each
other or hitting on all the women who are friends with each other.

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Astrohacker
The next big thing will start out looking like a toy = bitcoin

~~~
wladimir
Indeed, payments/currency/money seems to be one of the holdout areas yet to
experience a major global disruption by the internet. That doesn't mean the
"great new thing" necessarily has to be bitcoin, obviously. But it could be.
It also could be that computer security theory and practice first has to be
improved for it to be feasible so it'd still be some years away.

~~~
Bishop6
Perhaps, but it's coming. Paypal set out to revolutionize payments and
finance, and it was a bit before its time. Peter, Max, Luke, et al. wanted to
be an online currency, but struggled to stay afloat when the government
(understandably) back-lashed against them. They were, after all, trying to
destroy the government in many ways.

So Paypal changed their vision, and sold out. Oh well. All's well that ends
well. And things certainly ended well for them. But online currency is
inevitable. It's just going to take a little longer.

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ginzasparrow
5\. Generic advice is generally useless.

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kloncks
as an entrepreneur, a lot of this is either useful or I've seen first-hand

so I respectfully have to disagree

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jgamman
i think that comment was tongue in cheek joke ;-)

