

Things I’d Tell My 21 Year Old Entrepreneurial Self - jbischke
http://jonbischke.com/2009/04/24/the-5-things-id-tell-my-21-year-old-entrepreneurial-self/

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adatta02
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.

~~~
spaghetti
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.

~~~
ojbyrne
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?

~~~
rjurney
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? ;)

~~~
ojbyrne
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.

~~~
rjurney
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.

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

~~~
ptn
Curiously, I first read that quote in the page of a _bodybuilder trainer_. It
really is famous.

------
rjurney
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.

~~~
zackattack
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?

~~~
potatolicious
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.

------
joecalimar
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.

~~~
Ardit20
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.

------
davidw
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.

~~~
octane
> getting more involved in the business side of things sooner

Yes times one thousand.

------
mrz
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.

~~~
zackattack
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.

~~~
Ardit20
_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.

~~~
agrinshtein
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.

------
Confusion
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?

~~~
swolchok
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.

~~~
TheSOB88
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.

------
petercooper
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.

