

Have I learned more failing a startup than making it BIG?  - iamjonlee

Today's one of those days for me where you look back in the past and wonder where you would be and what you would be doing if a previous startup had made it BIG. You would be managing a team of rockstar programmers, amazingly talented designers, or so to say the cream of the crop of any team. But do we at that point stop improving? With a startups that's made it BIG, you spend your time learning all the ropes of managing it, and that doesn't really give you time to continue building your skills. If you're a programmer and your startup takes off, you might no longer work on anything that used to challenge you in the past. You would be working on parts of your project that were small or insignificant so that your team of rockstars would do the heavy lifting. DO we at that point stop improving?<p>While I'd love to have amazing success with my startup, the thoughts frighten me sometimes. Once I reach a level with my skill to be able to create something that people will use, that's where I'll stop because I'm comfortable with my progress. But that stifles innovation and improvement. I spent part of the day today going through my bookmarks and going through some of the role models that I've looked up to before for their skill. But a year later, they're still at the same level. They're no longer as interesting as they used to be and I've moved on to new people to look up to. Have I learned more due to my failed startup than if I were to make it BIG? Let me know your thoughts
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mindcrime
_Have I learned more due to my failed startup than if I were to make it BIG?
Let me know your thoughts_

If you did a failed startup, I'm sure you learned a lot of valuable lessons.
If your startup had succeeded and you were still working on it, and we were
still conversing today, would it not still be true that you "learned a lot of
valuable lessons from being involved in a startup the past X
years/months/whatever?" Sure the lessons would probably be different, but to
say you learned more or less in one scenario or the other seems impossible to
me.

Anyway, what has happened is what has happened, you can't change it; so I'd
encourage you to spend less time worrying about the past and hypothetical
alternate scenarios and more time worrying about what comes next.

------
voxx
Failure is just free knowledge. Also, don't set limits. If you set goals at
all besides 100% language awareness, you are only serving to fuck yourself
over. Transcend yourself every second of everyday. Let every line outdo the
last and shit like that.

~~~
iamjonlee
Well, the problem that I mentioned is that you no longer have the opportunity
to actually set your goal to 100% language awareness if your startup had made
it BIG. You don't have the time to do that when you're managing a startup like
that. Also, it'll cost your team more time to debug and fix your problems than
for the programming wizards on your team. Your comment, although appreciated,
didn't really respond to the post.

~~~
mindcrime
_Well, the problem that I mentioned is that you no longer have the opportunity
to actually set your goal to 100% language awareness if your startup had made
it BIG._

But that's not true. You're buying into limiting beliefs. You need to widen
your frame.

For example, if your startup is successful (enough) you can hire a CEO or COO
or whatever, let them manage the day to day stuff, appoint yourself "Chief
Scientist" (or even CTO, whatever) and go back to focusing on coding.

Besides, at the end of the day, you can set your goals to anything you want.
There are no limits. As the man said _Surprise me, challenge me, defy me._ [1]

[1]; <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/>

