

Ask HN: What has been your biggest risk? - ctingom

And did it pay off?
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dsifry
The Team. The more time that I spend building companies (Securemote,
Linuxcare, Sputnik, Technorati, and now Offbeat Guides), the more I realize
that the single biggest risk is in picking a great team. Get a great team that
works together, and you can resolve almost every other problem - competition,
product, market, financing, etc.

Pick a poor team, and you can have all the advantages in the world - lots of
money, little competition, a killer product, a huge market, and the company
will find a way to screw it up.

This was probably the biggest eye-opener for me when I moved from CTO jobs to
CEO. It's all about the people, and how everyone works together. Learning
leadership skills was incredibly important for me to be able to build and
inspire teams.

I've seen both sides of this at all the companies that I started. In my
experience, it's far and away the most important factor in a company's success
or failure.

~~~
wehriam
Management. The more companies I work for, the more I realize that coherent
decision makers are the foundation of successful enterprises.

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justin
Strapped camera to head.. turned into company

~~~
abstractbill
Went to work for company started by guy who strapped a camera to his head ;-)

~~~
hellfishburnsy
lol

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petervandijck
Went to live in South America just because I was tired of Belgium, no job, no
money. Turned out fantastic.

~~~
alexkay
Gosh, I miss Belgium, spent 5 years there. Australian weather is great and
stuff, but it's boooring...

~~~
fendale
Oz is boring? Im stuck in the UK and would love to be back in Oz because the
UK is boring (and the weather is terrible)! My theory is that no matter where
you live, it becomes normal (aka boring) after a few years.

~~~
alexkay
Haha, so true!

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ordinaryman
Biggest risk : Not taking a risk, until now.

Going to start on my own from Oct 01, 2008. The current economic scenario
makes that option seem more adventurous/challenging, making it my next biggest
risk.

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truebosko
Nothing huge yet, but a risk I may be taking in a year or so is moving out of
the province/country.

My goal is to move to Seattle with my girlfriend but obtaining a working visa
trying to work at a small company/startup seems tough and basically start
something new before moving back to Canada to start the next part of my life
(probably a family)

It's a big risk to me because I'm currently in a nice cushy startup with great
people, good money, and I really can't complain. But a man's gotta experience
life you know?

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vlad
Working at a corporation for a year. I guess it was worth it to know what it
is like, but a terrible long term financial, educational, and health risk--not
because of the company, but the domestication of relying on someone else over
many years. Also, the opportunities I missed out on while working.

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gstar
Got married.

Sold everything, moved from Australia to London.

Took up contracting

Wife worked on our startup while we bootstrapped instead of earning a salary.

In retrospect, it really doesnt feel like a risk at all, but I have
significantly less hair.

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amirnathoo
Getting married.

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teuobk
Leaving a decent job where I worked with good people and was paid well. I left
to go to grad school full time.

I have yet to complete my studies, but my feeling is that it has been worth
the cost.

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fallentimes
Not quitting my finance job.

Actually it was using 90k in credit card debt to finance my first business. It
paid off.

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alexk
quit my job, no funding, just own savings, each day of my personal freedom and
a hard work is the best revenue I can get from this risk!

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phil_KartMe
customer risk. assuming people know what they want.

specifically, do the potential customers who i interview really know how they
want their information management problems solved

payoff: tbd

------
known
I wanted to study Medicine. I ended up working for Wall Street.

