

I reject your rejection - mark_h
http://www.gaborcselle.com/blog/2009/02/i-reject-your-rejection.html

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aneesh
Randy Pausch put it best:

"The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to
give us a chance to show how badly we want something."

If you haven't heard this phrase, you really should watch his "Last Lecture":
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo>

~~~
vlad
Many years prior to his "Last Lecture", Randy was Pausch was first famous for
his Time Management lecture. I posted the video here 8 days ago.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459095>

~~~
adamsmith
Watching it now. It seems like a breakage that the video didn't get voted
higher!

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mattmaroon
I can tell you for a fact that line doesn't work on women.

~~~
volida
It doesn't work giving them what they want? Because that's what he did.

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vlad
Two years ago on News.YC, I posted a well-received* four page article by the
author here. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20032> It summarizes the
essence of founding Tripod and his "I'm not smart, just hard working" attitude
more than Gabrielle's blog post does.

(*Of course, back then, 40 upvotes was incredible.)

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scott_s
I was at the College of William and Mary for three years as a graduate
student. One of those years, a girl was graduating who did something similar
to get in. Her application was wait-listed, so she showed up on campus with a
sandwhich board saying so, and that she desperately wanted to come to WM. She
did, and she did well.

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raghus
Hmm... I wonder if pg is going to start getting emails/calls after the next YC
cycle asking how to remedy the the Bs in unsuccessful applications.

Or maybe he already does...

~~~
patio11
Here's some unsolicited advice for anybody: a) build the product b) charge
money for it c) get to ramen profitable. Then you can try asking for
investment again. If they say yes this time, great. If not, you are in a
pretty good situation for continuing development and proceeding down the
boring path of taking money from people.

Go far enough down that path and you'll have to beat off investors with a
stick.

[Edit to add: It is really scandalously cheap to get something on the Internet
these days if you have a programmer on board. People used to cite "thousands"
of dollars a lot, and thousands is a darn low number compared with "real"
businesses. If someone was asking me for advice I'd say its much easier to do
if you have "hundreds" but I have empirical experience that it is possible
with "tens".]

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I started this last week. Good domain, 5 years: $50

Reasonably powerful VPS, per month: $20

The rest is pretty much brain-sweat at this point.

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amackera
This anecdote fills me with hope for what a determined person is capable of.
Lately I've been stuck thinking credentials are supremely important. I'm happy
that people can challenge this and become successful!

~~~
brandnewlow
I think the key here was that the kid called up and said he wanted to play
ball. he didn't call to strong arm the admission office, he called and
essentially said "what do I need to do to be a stronger applicant next year?"

That's just a winning attitude in general. It shows the guy's got a goal and
is willing to do what it takes to make it happen.

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snowbird122
Well done. Make your own luck.

