
The Importance of Realism in Startups - DanielRibeiro
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/08/10/the-importance-of-realism-in-startups/
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mindcrime
_Age brings wisdom. Timidity, too. But age brings perspective. If older
entrepreneurs are more cautious it’s because life’s experiences have taught
them to be so._

I am so fucking tired of this old meme, that I think I'm going to vomit if I
hear it again. _SOME_ older entrepreneurs may, indeed, be "more cautious" or
"timid" or whatever. But there is absolutely nothing about being an older
entrepreneur that mandates such a thing. Furthermore, there is a
countervailing factor which rarely gets mentioned: older entrepreneurs are
just as likely to be _more desperate_ to succeed, and hence not at all
cautious or timid, because they are literally _running out of time_.

Speaking from personal experience: when I was 20, I could afford to lollygag
and take my time and be patient and buy into the "good things come to those
who wait" bullshit. Now I'm 40 and, last time I checked, I ain't getting any
younger. If I'm going to make my dreams happen, I can't afford to do anything
less than give 101%... Timidity, caution? Fuck that, ain't nobody got time for
that here.

More than at any point in my life, I'm looking at this startup thing as a
full-contact sport, and coming in with an attitude that I'm going to do
whatever it takes to win. These are desperate times, and no cards are off the
table, and we will fire every arrow in our quiver here... it's "do or die"
time, ya know? But my 20 year old self lacked that sense of perspective.

Now I don't claim to be a "representative sample" in any formal statistical
sense, obviously. But if I feel this way, I'm pretty sure there are other
older folks who do as well, at least in the general sense.

~~~
eksith
I'm wondering why this meme persists too because clearly the first Dot Com
Bubble wasn't all due to actions of "young" entrepreneurs. Plenty of "older"
people decided to take risks (probably due to that desperation) until those
risks stopped paying off altogether or it became obvious they never will.

