

How do you get over the fear of quitting your job to start a startup? - rpsubhub
http://www.quora.com/How-do-you-get-over-the-fear-of-quitting-your-job-to-start-a-startup

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gregschlom
My own hack: I've started bootstrapping in a totally unknown country. This
way, even if the project fails, I won't feel like I've lost my time or my
money, because of the great time I had discovering a new country.

Besides, choosing a cheap country to live in means you have more runway to
bootstrap. Here in Vietnam, I spend less than $700 / month, so I have almost
no money concerns.

I've written about it here: [http://gregschlom.com/post/2300487726/geographic-
arbitrage-h...](http://gregschlom.com/post/2300487726/geographic-arbitrage-
hedging-your-risk-as-a-startup)

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clistctrl
This is exactly what I was thinking of doing! I was looking at Costa Rica. The
one problem, is I can't see this working well with a b2b type business that
requires a lot of travelling.

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flyosity
Or you could take a less risky route: work on it at night and on the weekends
until you start making enough money to quit your job. That's what I did.

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jaredstenquist
This gets more difficult the older you get - corporate job, kids, mortgage,
etc...

I dropped out of college during my last year because I couldn't handle the
thought of not putting 100% of my chips down on my idea. After all, the
university will always be there to collect tuition.

It has taken me over 3 years of blood, sweat, tears, missed payroll, busted
relationships and credit card debt to get to the awesome place I am now: great
salary, 13 employees, two awesome VCs backing me and the team.

It's been one hell of an experience, but i encourage anyone able to take the
risk to do it. I've learned 10x what any MBA student would in just a few
years.

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barrydahlberg
Personally I just rephrased it...

 _How do you get over the fear of working jobs like this for the rest of your
life and not doing what you know your heart wants to do? Quit and start a
startup._

Works great if you're me. Your results may differ.

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d0m
Stop thinking, just do it. The worst might be to spend a couple of months
working on a project you love; the best might be to spend a couple of years
working on a project you love.

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martincmartin
What's the fear? Most startups fail, so you should be mentally ok with
failing. (Of course, you should try with all your might to succeed, but just
realize that even ALL your might may not be enough. :)

Save up enough money to self fund for a while. Put a lot of effort into it,
learn a lot, do some cool stuff, and consider that worth your investment. If
it succeeds, that's a great bonus!

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marknutter
Best way is to save up enough money to live off of for at least a year.

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slackerIII
Just think of the fear as practice for all the times at the startup you'll be
terrified that you've wasted N years of your life on something that suddenly
looks bleak. Then try to erode it with rationality, or just think about how
much fun being successful will be instead.

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rocamboleh
Very interesting point of embracing the fear associated with starting a
startup. I thoroughly believe in working with individuals who have something
to lose; without fear true motivation and commitment are far from commonplace.

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psykotic
> without fear true motivation and commitment are far from commonplace.

This is an alien mindset to me. Fear has never motivated any of my longer term
planning or actions. Maybe if I had a family whose life and welfare depended
utterly on my success in a risky endeavor, it would be different. But people
in that position rarely found startups. Lost opportunities is the larger if
more abstract issue for younger would-be founders, who often enjoy a surplus
of appealing options.

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rocamboleh
I find the possibility of failure very real; it is this possibility that
serves as one of many factors that motivates me. I realize that I almost see
it as a game: the opportunity to lose makes me more competitive. This line of
thinking is analogous to a poker game: no one is competitive unless the chips
are worth something. Could you elaborate on your lost opportunity point? Are
you suggesting that the inability to focus on a particular idea can be
crippling?

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psykotic
I interpreted your 'fear' to mean a kind of desperation. My point about lost
opportunities was that your average startup founder is not at a loss for
options, so desperation is not the driving force of his day to day work. I'm a
very competitive guy as well, but I wouldn't put that down to anything like
fear. In competition I'm motivated predominantly by the positive side of
winning rather than the negative side of losing. That's the case even if I go
all in.

It's always interesting to hear of someone else's experience with these
matters because it's all too easy to forget how different we all are. Thanks
for weighing in.

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rocamboleh
You as well. I suppose I'm just rather nervous about pursuing this. I'm just
about to graduate from college and have decided to pursue my startup idea.

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cageface
Simple. Wait until you reach such an extreme of boredom that the fear
evaporates.

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ericflo
What is the worst case scenario? Your startup fails and you get a job again?
If the worst case scenario is that you're back where you are right now, then
it's not a big leap to make.

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MatthewPhillips
That's not the worst case scenario, that's the second best case scenario (the
best being that your startup succeeds). The worst case is that you spend a lot
of time floundering unsure if your startup will succeed or not. Meanwhile your
debt is growing, your eating bologna sandwiches every night, your relationship
with friends and/or family is strained because you're in a bad mood all the
time or because you've borrowed money from them. Then you decide that your
startup has failed and you try to move back into corporate jobs except it's
harder to find one this time because you've got the experience of an
entrepreneur not of a recent graduate or because the economy is down and
demand is low, or a number of other reasons. You're going to find a job but
it's taking longer and that debt number keeps growing. Your dream has turned
into a nightmare that'll take 5-10 years to pay off.

 _That's_ the worst case scenario, and a good reason to take the decision very
seriously.

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michaelochurch
These are my thoughts, although I'm still figuring things out and haven't had
break-out success yet.

1\. Launching a startup is a big deal. It's a great thing to do, but it's not
for everyone and it shouldn't be taken lightly. If you're young and
considering doing this, try working in one first. Start with one that has
already raised capital and can pay you reasonably well-- no, you won't make
the $85-100k available in corporate jobs in take-home cash; although if the
company's successful, you'll do a bit better than that-- and learn on someone
else's dime and risk. This means you _won't_ get all the glory if the
startup's a home run. It does give you a chance to learn what startups are
about. If you can't find a startup you like, find a larger corporation and
become an "intrapreneur".

2\. Network and learn in your 20s. Zuckerberg is the exception, not the rule.
Most successful startup entrepreneurs are going to be in their 30s; and most
of those people spent their 20s diligently (and invisibly) working hard to
learn about technology and also about people. Meet venture capitalists and see
how they think. Meet (and become one of) the smart programmers you'll want to
hire and see how they see the world. You're going to need a strong network if
you want to do a startup because (a) you'll need meetings with investors and
clients, and (b) you'll need a safety net if the startup doesn't work out.

3\. Remember that startups aren't _that_ much riskier than corporate jobs. The
five-year survival rate of new companies isn't the infamous 10%, at least not
when discussing serious technology companies with tech-savvy, full-time
founders. It's actually about 50%. Now consider a corporate job: a lot of
people end up "pigeonholed" with low visibility and minimal chances of
advancement (once new people are being hired into the spots you deserve, this
has happened to you) in corporate jobs. They fall off the "fast track" and
will never get back on. This has more to do with political luck than skill or
work ethic, and what are the odds of it happening? About fifty-fifty, after 5
years. So it seems to be a constant that any time you take a new job, there's
about a 50% chance that you'll either lose that job, or it won't be worth it
to come in to work, 5 years later. When you're young, the half-life of a job
is probably less than that. In this light, startups aren't actually that
dangerous. If you're 22 right now, there's over a 90 percent chance that you
_will_ lose a job involuntarily (layoffs, health problems, political
misfortune, business failures) in the next 40 years. It turns out not to be
such a big deal.

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18pfsmt
To your thorough response, i would simply add that experience with large
established companies is a good way to get an understanding how these
behemoths operate, what the typical pain points they have, and how mature
companies establish processes for everything.

Moving on to a startup as an employee, esp. an early one, is also a great
experience and usually gives you experience outside of your specific
discipline (e.g. developer). Everyone wears multiple hats, you operate in a
small environment, and you'll be privy to VC meetings/ pitch decks/ cap
tables/ board meetings/ etc.

Networking throughout those experiences will serve you well when the time
comes to start your own.

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mdpm
a) Redefine failure for yourself. Failing is not getting what/where you want.
b) Don't fail.

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ggeorgovassilis
If your heart tells you too, then you won't feel fear.

If you do feel fear, don't do a startup :-)

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generalk
This is ridiculous.

Most people experience fear and anxiety when approaching risk, even if it's a
risk they're absolutely willing to take. This whole "fear means you're not
ready" meme only discourages people experiencing normal human emotion.

Well, screw that. If you feel fear, remember that all of us do, and if you're
ready _go for it!_ Don't let other folks tell you the stars will align and
you'll magically "feel right" because _you won't_ and it's no reason to hold
back.

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ggeorgovassilis
You are taking fear as a sign of shyness, which is a romantic view of what it
really is. Fear results out of a subjective mismatch of your own perceived
skills vs. the task ahead.

If in doubt (fear), you should probably spend more time and resources working
on your skill set and finding out how (and if) you can be up to the task.

While "Just go for it" will certainly do if you know the guy personally and
you're convinced that all he need is encouragement, generally stated (like in
this thread) it is bad advice lacking both facts and perspective.

