

Ask HN: was anything ever easy?  - partymon

Hi HN, 
I'm building my first startup, and I have been amazed that every good thing that happened so far, we really had to work hard for. That's not surprising per se, but I was really expecting some breaks here and there. Maybe those are yet to come. Was it always hard from the get go, or does it get better?
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patio11
I disagree with the other folks on this page that say that life is suffering
and life in five years will be more suffering. That directly contradicts my
experience. In many ways my business(es?) are the easiest job(s) I've ever
had, and while six years into it I occasionally have a bad day (ask me about
Thursday -- still recovering), things are in general on the up and up.

With regards to catching breaks: have you ever heard the phrase "overnight
success in only X years"? That characterizes a lot of the breaks which I've
personally experienced or had related to me by other people. You sometimes
have oh-my-goodness-that's-absolutely-unbelievable-you-are-so-lucky happen to
you, but that luck often closely resembles the predictable effects of
crystallized hard work.

~~~
MDS100
What happened on Thursday?

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gyardley
God, yes. Things get _much_ easier.

A certain class of startup-building problems gets way easier as you grow and
can afford to hire specialized resources.

Get to the point where you can hire a good finance person? Things just got way
easier.

Get to the point where you can hire a dedicated HR person? Things just got way
easier.

Get to the point where you can hire a dedicated office manager? Things just
got way easier.

Get to the point where you can hire a personal assistant? Thing just got way
easier.

Beyond that, your life gets way easier psychologically as you start to achieve
some success.

Your family and friends stop wondering when you're going to get a real job?
Your life is way easier.

Got a big and diverse enough array of clients that losing a big one won't sink
the company? Your life is way easier.

Doing well enough financially that you've been able to build up a sizeable
nest egg? Your life is way easier.

As for luck, Bo Peabody's 'Lucky or Smart?' is the classic here - it's a great
little book. Companies do get lucky break, but they have to be able to
recognize and take advantage of luck when it comes.

~~~
modernise
You mistake "externalized" for ease.

Always like lunch w the young republicans in here.

~~~
gyardley
That'd be true if you only hired people as good as yourself in all the
specialized functions. Instead, you hire people better than yourself. Managing
finances, for example, is much easier with a CPA on staff.

What on earth could be the point of the second line of your comment?

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debacle
A lot of the times, the first step in the right direction is _really_ hard.
The kind of hard that makes projects not happen, deals not get signed,
relationships not get built, etc.

But every step after the first in the right direction gets easier.

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modernise
No one punches these keys, ~!@#$%^&*()-+, w regularity who embraces ease, as a
cartographical matter of fact. I think the root problem you're asking about is
how to deal with confusion and overwhelm, rather than difficulty.

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m-i
If it were easy, everybody would do it. So far however, only a minority is
doing startups. IMO too, if it's getting easier, you are doing it wrong.

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modernise
What's sure is that, to quote DHH, "It never gets easier."

If you feel things are getting easier, than you're doing it wrong.

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benologist
Not only will it always be hard, it will probably get a lot harder too.

