

Making the hardest decision of my life - BIackSwan
http://karankurani.com/post/92907105498/making-the-hardest-decision

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read
Don't be quick to follow this part of the advice: _Don’t let immigration
issues ever be a major factor in your long term career decisions._

Maybe it wasn't an irreversible decision for the blog author personally. But
it can be an irreversible decision. I've seen it.

And a question: is the incredible laywer who gave you this advice an
immigrant?

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steven2012
Yup I came in to say the same thing. I think this is terrible advice. If your
goal is to come back to the US then going back to India for a startup is a
terrible idea. If you don't care if you never return back to the US, then it's
fine but if you do want to return, you have no idea what the immigration laws
will be or how hard it is to return.

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BIackSwan
Thats the whole point of risk. I risk not coming back because i wont have any
idea what the immigration laws will be or how hard it is to return. I am ok
with taking that risk, many are not.

But so far in my experience I have always found that there is always an
option/a way to your goal. It might be shitty, long (as in multiple _years_
long) and tons of headache and hassle, but there is always a way.

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read
Pay attention to a couple of things in your response. Whatever happens I wish
you the best.

(1) You contradicted yourself. What multiple years long translates to as you
increase the number of years is death. So it's not true that there is always
an option to your goal. At some point you run out of time and it leaves you
without options.

If you haven't found this so far in your experience you might find it in the
future in your experience. The important thing isn't whether you found it so
far or not. It's whether it's true.

If by getting back up you mean returning to the US and getting past visa
issues to continue entrepreneurship there, then you said something that's not
true: you can't say it won't be hard to get back up. You don't know how hard
it will be.

It is true though that reward is proportionate to risk. I also agree with the
more general advice: make an option work for you. As long as it's qualified
with: be aware the option that will work for you will have limitations another
option wouldn't. The closer you get to the truth, the messier your sentence
gets.

(2) When you find yourself justifying something with guilty words like
"always" and "whole point" ("incredible" for the lawyer, "damn fine" for the
university, "too damn good" for the opportunity) it's often to counteract
something you subconsciously know is true. Else you wouldn't find the need to
try hard to qualify the statement. You would just say the statement instead.
You should be alarmed when you catch yourself do that.

After identifying the logical fallacy in (1), the second interpretation I had
to reading your blog post was it was a cry for help from your subconscious.
That it needed evidence it didn't have to convince your conscious part to
reconsider the decision. I don't know if this is possible now that 5 months
have passed.

It's also slightly suspicious you defended your blog post with risk. You might
have subconsciously done it to camouflage the possibly bigger risk of deciding
to stay in the US permanently if you are from India. You'd have to part from
your family, possibly for a lifetime, and that can be a scarier thing than
returning home. You'd also part with two co-founder friends and a startup
idea. I can't know exactly what's going on in your case but if paying more
attention to your subconscious helps your journey I'm glad this long response
might have helped.

Tricky thing that subconscious:

    
    
      The vast majority of goals you are pursuing, every day
      of your life, operate entirely without your awareness.
    
      - Heidi Grant Halvorson

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comrade1
I spend at least once a year in Delhi and/or Hyderbad. I have friends in both
places and have met multiple times with many movers and shakers in the tech
and other communities, including the former ceo of microsoft india, the
defense minister, and many below that level.

My trip two or three years ago let me observe something amazing - the start of
many Indians that were born and raised outside of India are moving to India to
start up companies - tech, biotech, etc. The parties I went to... hanging out
with brits, french, americans, but all Indian ancestry but not Indian.

Many, but not all, were doing quite well with their companies. The ones that
had left the West at the highest level of their jobs possible (e.g., cto of
louis vuitton, head scientist of a pharma company, etc) were doing the best.
The others were struggling.

But, given all of that, I couldn't help but think that they may be dooming
their children and future generations. It's much easier to move to India with
money and success than to move to the West, and I don't think India is there
yet to support a successful business/tech class.

I do think overall the move back to India is going to be good for India.
There's a conflict between the tech and the political class and the political
class needs to be taken down a few notches. Can you imagine your outrage when
a government official demands a bribe in order for your business to move
forward? The Western-originated Indians won't stand for it - one of my trips
to Hyderabad a house sale made the news because there was no black money
involved...

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anupshinde
All the best and hope this product works. I am still wondering how you manage
to give those discounts in a place where people don't really understand what
are the tests recommended by doctors. And doctors referring to certain labs
and with their hand-writing that is hard to read (many do it for commission -
some don't). And how would you manage the scenario where (few) doctors
"reject" the reports from the labs that are not the ones they referred.

Scarily, NABL website has a meta description set to "Joomla! blah blah
blah..." that shows up on Google search results.

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BIackSwan
Hi anupshinde. We already have processes which deal with these issues. And if
we get any complaints about report quality, we give a 100% refund.

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dd367
As a Cornell Computer Science undergraduate from India myself, I find this
post very thought provoking. Other factors that I personally would probably
take into account is gaining some industry experience before one jumps into
entrepreneurship in India and simply acquiring some capital from a few years
of employment in the US which can you lean back on during your difficult
startup days back in India. Just a thought.

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sumanthvepa
Welcome home to India! I'm another Cornell alum here who did the same. You're
certainly not alone. I moved to the US after my undergrad and studied and
worked there before returning home to eventually become an entrepreneur. One
of the driving factors in my decision to return to India, was that it is a lot
easier for an Indian (citizen) to be an entrepreneur in India, than it was for
a H1B visa holder to be an entrepreneur in the US. That visa is not designed
for that purpose. For me the decision was straight forward. And I was
surprised to find how many folks with similar backgrounds had come to the same
conclusion. And fortunately, India as a startup destination has only become
more attractive in the years since I've returned.

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xiaoma
> _3\. It will be not that hard to get back up if I fail completely and
> utterly_

Most people are too risk-adverse. As long as you can keep playing after a
loss, there's little reason to be risk-adverse. The exception is when the risk
is so extreme—death, imprisonment, etc..—that losing means you couldn't play
again.

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hpagey
I looked at your product, very interesting indeed. I think you made the
correct decision. Is it possible to negotiate a bulk discount for patients
with chronic illness. These people need to repeat these tests almost weekly.

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BIackSwan
Thanks! We already have a growing userbase of chronic patients who love our
service and use it for all their tests.

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hpagey
Are you also planning on adding dialysis cost comparisons?

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themonk
Your are doing good job, helping patients to find cheap services, you are the
first one to do it here in India. Thanks.

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sumietagg
good luck man! I am sure it will work out for you :)

