
“Why I Declined An Offer To Work At Instagram” Via Quora - lambtron
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/08/platform-for-all-human-knowledge/
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jonmrodriguez
Direct link to the Quora question: [http://www.quora.com/Instagram/Did-anyone-
decline-an-offer-t...](http://www.quora.com/Instagram/Did-anyone-decline-an-
offer-to-work-at-Instagram)

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rhizome
Actual link: [http://www.quora.com/Instagram/Did-anyone-decline-an-
offer-t...](http://www.quora.com/Instagram/Did-anyone-decline-an-offer-to-
work-at-Instagram)

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zbruhnke
Personally I admire him for taking the opportunity he truly wanted and
believed in. That's so much more important in the long run

For those of you who think money is the only thing that matters, go make a
good bit of it then see if it changes your life so dramatically like you think
it will.

The reality is unless you're an asshole money does not change you much at all.
And if you're an entrepreneur it's not gonna make you stop from moving on to
the next big idea either.

It's easy to sit on one said and say "you know he's actually upset about this"
but until you've sat on the other side of things and realized he has a job he
loves at a company he truly believes in you're probably better off saying
nothing at all.

Just my $.02

~~~
pavel_lishin
> For those of you who think money is the only thing that matters, go make a
> good bit of it then see if it changes your life so dramatically like you
> think it will.

This is kind of predicated on you not hurting for money now. If you're
fighting to pay off $100,000 worth of medical bills, or trying to figure out
how to move to a different state for a job without getting totally hosed on a
house you bought six months ago, money could make one hell of a difference.

~~~
zbruhnke
My argument here is simply that the people who make it are the ones who go
through those struggles and keep fighting.

I promise you there were a few occasions in my life where I had to choose
between toilet paper and toothpaste. My employees had no idea how bad I was
struggling and had I ever let it on they probably would have jumped ship. I
found a way to make it through those stuggles where most people would have
quit.

It's easy for people to say "Life's easier when you dont have to worry about
paying off debt etc." what most of those people forget is that the ones of us
who dont have those worries now probably had them just as bad or worse than
you can imagine at some point.

The media loves to talk about the rosy side of startups but they never print
the article talking about the guys with stories like mine.

At one point I literally took a job selling cars on the weekend just to be
able to keep paying my employees and losing money on my business. Everyone I
knew told me to quit, but I was just young enough and just dumb enough that I
wouldn't. I believed in myself, my company and my employees too much to just
give up.

If I had listened to my friends and parents I would have quit, finished school
and got a job in the rat race worrying about paying off those student loans.

Instead I got it profitable and ended up selling the company.

Unlike the poster below thinks though I don't have 40 free hours a week these
days. I am working to build the next big thing because this is in my blood,
its what I love to do and I'll be damned if money (in any direction) is going
to be a factor in making my life turn out the way I want.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> My argument here is simply that the people who make it are the ones who go
> through those struggles and keep fighting.

Or the ones who get lucky.

> <personal anecdote>

I'm really glad things worked out for you. But it's still a personal anecdote.
(On the gripping hand, I fully admit that I do not have your drive, and I
would have failed where you succeeded; so maybe there's something to it after
all. How much did luck play in your success?)

~~~
zbruhnke
>> How much did luck play in your success?

I'd say in my case, as with most anyone's I was very lucky and we all have to
be to have a story like mine, but I am still a firm believer in great people
making their own luck.

Call me crazy if you like, its just how I feel. I didn't grow up with money, I
didn't go to the nicest schools or have the best teachers but I had a ton of
drive and the will to succeed.

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abdurraheem
His take could have been close to 5Mil+[1] had he joined the team.

While i do believe there are people out there who are not motivated by money,
to me claiming "..money doesn’t make much of a difference... most of it’s
gone. I’m kind of glad it is." smells of cognitive dissonance.

[1] [http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/facebook-buys-
instagr...](http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/facebook-buys-instagram/)

~~~
bentlegen
Re: "His take could have been close to 5Mil+[1] had he joined the team."

So let's say he was hired. Maybe his engineering decisions send Instagram on
another trajectory - one that doesn't involve a billion dollar exit. Maybe his
impact on candidate interviews causes Instagram to end up with an entirely
different-looking engineering team, one that isn't as successful. Maybe he
develops considerable influence within the organization, and convinces the
founders to take an earlier exit.

This isn't a knock against Robert. This is just suggesting that things could
have played out entirely differently were he onboard - even if he was by every
measure a successful employee.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Maybe an asteroid strikes their headquarters. Maybe this is a pretty good
argument^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H justification for why every decision someone makes is
the right^H^H^H^H^H wrong one.

~~~
bentlegen
I mean, sure, those things could have happened, but I was focusing on outcomes
that might likely have been impacted by Robert as the 2nd engineering hire -
not random acts of god.

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tlrobinson
Is TechCrunch really allowed to post entire Quora answers as articles?

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rkudeshi
Forbes has been doing it for a while and @Quora retweets them all the time, so
they must be OK with it.

(Haven't checked, but assuming they're licensed under Creative Commons?)

~~~
Schwolop
Forbes has an arrangement with Quora[1]. AFAIK TechCrunch does not.

[1] [http://www.quora.com/How-does-Forbes-decide-which-Quora-
answ...](http://www.quora.com/How-does-Forbes-decide-which-Quora-answers-to-
post-on-their-website)

~~~
rkudeshi
Oh wow, that is very interesting. I always thought it was Forbes cherry-
picking content to repost, had no idea that it was Quora themselves selecting
what to essentially "promote" on Forbes.

Also, now I know why @Quora retweets the Forbes versions so often! (It always
aggravates me, personally - I usually click through to the Quora version so I
can see other replies, votes, comments, etc.)

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pjmlp
Maybe it is just me, but I still don't get this craziness around Instagram.

~~~
StavrosK
I don't even get the craziness around Quora...

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markthien
bcoz u r an idiot !

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lucian303
Considering that one is more likely to win the lottery than strike it rich at
any startup, I wouldn't have any regrets either.

~~~
pavel_lishin
[ citation needed ]

