

I Almost Let My Failed Startup Destroy Me - ruidelgado
http://ruidg.co/1xEZ71y

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snowy
Why has this been allowed to be posted twice?

[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=I+Almost+Let+My+Failed+Startup+Des...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=I+Almost+Let+My+Failed+Startup+Destroy+Me+#!/story/forever/0/I%20Almost%20Let%20My%20Failed%20Startup%20Destroy%20Me)

Both by ruidelgado

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sp332
This one uses the rudig.co URL shortener. Shorteners are blocked on HN but I
guess this one isn't on the blacklist (yet).

~~~
snowy
Yeah looks like the duplicate detection algorithm HN uses could do with a
serious upgrade. After reading the post the first time I felt bad for the OP.

After seen he posted it twice deliberately trying to cover his tracks with a
URL shortener I think he is a joke...

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graeme
I went through a 2.5 year marathon when bootstrapping my business. I don't
regret it. But if you do something like that, you _must_ take care of sleep,
eating, exercise and stress as your first priorities. And I always made time
for family.

What did I cut out? Dating, making friends, a lot of leisure activities. I did
some, of course, but work was the highest priority on my mind.

The payoff was that I got a significant amount of work done, and had more
ideas as well, because business was the subject my idle thoughts turned to.

I'll note that I had clear revenue metrics. So while I was living for the
future, I also got results and money in the present as well.

All that said, it's not without it's costs. I am happier now to be working at
a lower pace. On the other hand, my business would have failed without the
marathon pace in the first few years.

If you make this choice, make it a deliberate one, and take care of the bases.
And have outcomes you won't accept. I had clearly defined conditions for when
it would have made sense to quit, take the results I had into maintenance
mode, and get a job.

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gamerDude
This makes me think of optimization problems around creating a life of
productivity. Sometimes what seems to be an improvement just leads to
suboptimal local optimizations. If you want to optimize, you really need to
plan and look for all options as opposed to just taking a step in what looks
like the right direction.

For instance, going for fast food over learning to cook some basic meals. If
you are trying to optimize for price, buying pre-made meals is so much more
expensive than learning to cook some basic meals and buying the ingredients. I
probably eat on about 5-10 dollars a day because I buy in bulk and I make
everything. I could definitely reduce that price too.

And on working out, there are studies that working out actually gets you
better focus and productivity gains for hours after you're done. So, the
phrase shouldn't be "I'm too busy to work out", it should be "I'm too busy to
not work out".

And luckily both of those solutions also help with your long-term health and
well-being.

~~~
aianus
> If you are trying to optimize for price, buying pre-made meals is so much
> more expensive than learning to cook some basic meals and buying the
> ingredients.

Depends how much you make. It takes me less than 15 minutes billable minutes
to earn a healthy takeout lunch. It would definitely take longer than 15
minutes to cook/clean/buy groceries not to mention I enjoy my job a lot more
than food preparation.

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euphemize
Over the years in the startup world, I've realized there are just a few very
fundamental things that I (personally) need to do to keep going. Especially in
such an exciting / stressful / uncertain ecosystem, year after year. I suspect
others have this too:

\- Eat well \- Sleep well \- Sports (both individual and team)

If I do these things more often than not, odds are that I'll be productive,
have good ideas, be able to execute on them and be generally happy. It takes
discipline, but I could never go back to not doing these.

Thanks to the author for a really vibrant piece, I'm sure he'll be back on his
feet.

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rabidonrails
It kills me to read this. I've bootstrapped two startups and I do remember
days when I ate crap and worked into the wee hours.

My advice to anybody in a situation like this is to make sure to be around
family (or really close friends) because they'll call bullshit on you when you
start going off the deep end. I also made sure to be on a rec. sports teams.
This made me get out of my office (read room), have a good time and keep in
shape.

Bootstrapping is hard work, but you cannot let it destroy you.

~~~
buckbova
> they'll call bullshit on you when you start going off the deep end

From my experience, most people when called out on their bullshit will slowly
cut you off. I think it's human nature.

