
Ask YC: What's the best advice you ever got? - edw519
After reading a recent post here with "best advice" from 13 prominent business people, I was underwhelmed.  Now I know why.  I'd rather hear from you guys than from them.
======
lisa_williams
I have a vivid memory of being six years old and seeing my dad come in the
door of the apartment we lived in at the time.

My father came from a working class family. On that day, he had already been
going to night school for three years, and would continue for another four
years before getting a degree in computer science (this was before the days of
easy, short degree programs for adults with jobs). He wore a shirt and tie
every day to his job but still looked like the kind of guy who wore coveralls
to work.

He slumped. His hair, thick glasses, and briefcase were dotted with rain. He
closed the apartment door, looked at me, and said, "Never become an expert in
something you don't like -- because then people will want you to do it ALL THE
TIME."

He was a lot happier after he got his degree, in part because I think there
were more and better choices of things to become good at. (The money was
better, too).

~~~
DaniFong
Thank you for the story. I really enjoyed it. Welcome to YC. :-)

------
astrec
One company ago I made a mistake: Not a huge mistake, but a mistake that was
big enough. Summoned to the CEO's office, I figured I'd soon be stuffing my
knickknacks in a box.

Instead he told me the following story about Sam Walton, the founder of a
somewhat successful retail venture.

A newly hired executive had made a multi-million dollar mistake and he too was
summoned to the corner office. Before Sam could get a word in, the executive
said "Save the lecture and just fire me."

Sam studied the young executive for a few moments and replied "Fire you? I
just invested millions of dollars in your education - you don't even get to
resign".

Like Sam Walton's freshly minted executive, I learned an important lesson that
day. Mistakes, even those of the multi-million dollar variety, are inevitable.
What is of utmost importance is that we learn the lessons taught.

(Only later did I fully grasp that small mistakes are actually desirable).

~~~
mynameishere
I wonder who originally said that.

[http://books.google.com/books?id=9-9D_5wK01QC&pg=PA87...](http://books.google.com/books?id=9-9D_5wK01QC&pg=PA87&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0&sig=XUtWjs1cK9oI_Y3lANcgAyOjZx4#PPA99,M1)

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notdarkyet
I have never made a comment on HC and I have been the silent observer for
quite a while. Whether it will be of quality or not, I feel now is a good time
to make the first one. To me, the greatest part of this site is the Ask YC
section. Some of the most insightful and helpful advice I have ever read has
come from the comments and in most cases, the comments are significantly
better than the articles themselves.

The best advice that I ever received was from my father. He is one of the
hardest working men I have ever met (construction) and never seems to complain
no matter how tough things or life can get. This bit of advice may have been
given to him at one point, but not too long ago he said to me, "Don't ever
feel like you are missing out on something. There will always be another
party".

While this advice is somewhat simplistic on the surface, it really has given
me the ability to put life and the choices I make into perspective. It is easy
to put your future on the back burner and get caught up in the feeling that
it's a necessity to go out all the time (I am in college if that put things
into perspective). I am gifted with the uncanny ability to rationalize to
myself that the poor decision I am about to make is the somehow the
appropriate one at the time(/sarcasm). Opportunities sometimes only come once
in a lifetime and how we handle those situations is often the true determinant
of our character.

Sometimes it is hard to stay in and direct my time and efforts into my current
side project. Hopefully there will be many parties (celebratory I would like
to think ;) ) to make up for the time that I am spending to make an impact and
reach success outside of the norm. Sometimes I laugh at some of the comments
people around me make, believing as though they can spend 6 out of 7 days a
week drunk and then magically be granted a seven figure salary as the CEO of
some organization right out of college. The other day someone I am unfortunate
enough to know said to the people in a class "In ten years, you will all be
working for me!". Well, I sure hope that in ten years I am not the katsup man
in the McDonald's assembly line.

I am actually excited to submit an Ask YC question of my own in the next day
or so because I really feel like I could use some direction on after college
decisions. Cheers!

~~~
edw519
You picked a pretty good post for a first comment. Welcome!

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mixmax
The best advice I ever got was from a board member of a startup I was involved
in some years ago. He was a member of the European parlaiment, had started two
multi million dollar companies, and generally a guy that you would want to
listen to. His advice came at a very early stage of our startup and was very
simple: Make a prototype that looks great, nobody will care how the hell it
works but it has to look good.

~~~
Alex3917
The most important thing I learned in my business classes sophomore year of
college was to make the investor visualize your product no matter what you're
pitching. So if you want 100k to buy a kiosk in your local mall, make a 3D
rendering of what the kiosk is going to look like. And if you are pitching a
new kind of bacon to a group of VCs, make damn sure your cofounder is cooking
it in the back of the room and everyone there can smell it. Getting a picture
into the other person's head is 90% of getting the money at the seed stage.

------
Alex3917
Even the most beautiful paintings, the best novels, and the greatest
scientific discoveries were 95% drudgery to create. The reason most people
never paint beautiful paintings and write world-changing novels isn't because
they aren't smart enough, but because they don't find it fun.

~~~
xlnt
right. they prefer pokemon or football or something that doesn't require much
thought or learning. since they _are_ smart enough to do better, they are
guilty of having immoral values. they ought to find better things fun, but
instead are wasting their lives.

edit: looks like 8 people so far noticed that they are guilty and don't intend
to change anything.

~~~
gruseom
_they are guilty ... they ought to find better things fun_

I'm pretty sure what the downmodders are reacting against is the absoluteness
of your moralism. Personally, I'm not offended by it. I'm flabbergasted by it.

Edit: this just reminded me of one of the best pieces of advice I ever
received: _Judge not, lest ye be judged._ How's that for swinging back on
topic?

~~~
xlnt
Yes, I know what they are responding to. I also noticed that they, and you,
failed to comment on whether what I said is _true_.

They could do better, but don't, that's practically the definition of immoral.
They value the wrong things, again, that's practically the definition of
immoral. What am I wrong about? That some of the best things ever made are
better than football?

~~~
mlinsey
No, I wouldn't call that immoral at all. Immoral, to me at least, is when you
cause harm to other people.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with deciding you don't want to devote
enormous amounts of time and effort to something creative. For example, you
can touch plenty of people's lives and have a tremendous positive impact on
the world just by being there for your friends and family, something that
devoting yourself to an intensely creative endeavor probably interferes with.

Don't get me wrong - entrepreneurs, authors, and other creative people are
special people. That's why they are rewarded (sometimes) with praise,
admiration, or money. But that most emphatically does _not_ mean that they are
better or more moral people than those who choose to live more ordinary lives.

~~~
xlnt
The moral question is: how should I live?

But anyway, use whatever words you want, I've told you what I meant: living
better, more fruitful lives with more learning and thinking. And people who
_could_ do that, but _don't_ , are guilty of living badly, living below their
abilities.

This is not just a matter of opinion or taste. For example, we are only able
to communicate here because of scientific achievement; that is objectively
more important than pokemon. And, for example, no one is perfect, so people
who correct more of their mistakes end up better than those who don't. People
who think and learn more are more able and effective at correcting their
mistakes to improve themselves.

~~~
radu_floricica
Morality comes from living and the way you live, not the other way around.
Morality is just one of the tools we use to live better. It's definitely not
something to judge how well we live.

~~~
xlnt
if morality is a tool to use to live better (i agree), then people who _don't
use it_ , or use little of it, are immoral, and ought to change.

------
dcurtis
Three.

The first is from a YC founder. I don't remember who, but he said "Always say
yes." I tried that out for a while, and it has worked pretty well. A lot of
where I am in my life is because I just said yes when I normally would have
shrugged it off.

The second is from an essay by paul graham. "When given two choices, always
choose the harder one." This one has become a mantra I say over and over again
to myself. It hasn't failed me yet.

And finally, from Steve Jobs: "Listen to your intuition. It tends to know
where you're going better than you do."

I think if I mix those three pieces of advice, I'll have a pretty respectable
life.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_Always say yes._

Ironically, another useful rule is "say no more often". It can help protect
your sanity and your focus.

There are times when it's hard to know which of these excellent rules to
apply. Perhaps the secret is to listen to your intuition. :)

~~~
xirium
From the newspaper London Lite on Tue 6 May 2008: "All you have to do is say
yes or no to things. It's easy." -- Singer, Joss Stone, 21, has a simple trick
when it comes to managing her own career.

------
mace
Steve Jobs gave a great commencement speech at Stanford a few years ago. The
best bits were:

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be
truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to
do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep
looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you
find it."

~~~
neodude
The best bit of that speech was the business of looking in the mirror every
morning and asking if you want to do what you're going to do that day.

The trouble is, I'm going to college, I am saying "no" an awful lot of the
time, but I'm not brave enough to quit.

~~~
dcurtis
I was in the same position.

And eventually, partially because of the mirror-every-morning trick he talked
about, I did quit.

------
iamelgringo
I was sitting in a coffee shop one day with a friend in Chicago, and a very
intoxicated young hispanic man stumbled up to us, put his hands on our table,
leaned over and gave me a smell of his breath that I still remember. Then he
looked me in the eye, moved his finger within inches of my face and told me
this: Never, never, ever date a Cuban woman.

To this day I've taken his advice. He seemed like he knew what he was talking
about.

------
adammichaelc
"Don't work for money. Then you'll just get rich. And it's harder for a rich
man to go to heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Why would
you want to get rich if after you die you can't enjoy the next life?

"Just find what your passionate about and do that. Then you'll love life,
you'll be in a great mood for your wife and kids. And you'll make plenty of
money to get by."

Norm Nemrow, My Accounting Professor at BYU (My hero)

Edit: I don't think I wrote this exactly the way he said it -- he took an hour
and a half to say what I tried to write here in just a couple paragraphs.

------
melvinram
"After you go to the bathroom, you don't just stand there and look at what you
just dropped in there for all night long. At some point you gotta flush it,
man." ~ Kobe Bryant

"Whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right." ~ Ron
Sutton

My other favorite quotes are at:
<http://melvinram.tadalist.com/lists/906581/public>

~~~
melvinram
QUOTES THAT HAVE INFLUENCED ME GREATLY:

* You can tell how badly you want [something] by observing your actions each day. Are they consistent with [attaining your goal]? ~ Brian Tracy

* Character is destiny. ~ Sigmund Freud

* Heaven and hell are a state of mind. ~ The Four Agreements

* We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. ~ Mother Teresa

* There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. ~ Richard Buckminster Fuller

* After you go to the bathroom, you don't just stand there and look at what you just dropped in there for all night long. At some point you gotta flush it, man. ~ Kobe Bryant

* Whether you believe you can, or you believe you can't... either way you're right. ~ Ron Sutton at The SBRC

* There are some things you can do something about and some things you can't do anything about... don't worry bout stuff you can't do anything about. ~ Dunno

* Work Harder. Play Hardest. ~ Me

* Attraction is not a choice. ~ David DeAngelo

* Intelligence is defined by prediction. ~ Jeff Hawkins

* "Every beginning requires an ending, another revolution around the wheel of life. Death is not sad; the sad thing is that most people dont really live at all." ~ Dan Millman

* Magnify what's best. Focus on what's next. ~ Change How You See Everything book

* Focus attention on opportunities not problems, strengths not weaknesses and what can be done instead of what cant. ~ Change How You See Everything book

* A diamond is just a hunk of coal made good under pressure. ~ Rod Weckworth

* There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

------
huherto
When I was hesitant about starting a business: "The world belongs to God, but
he allows the brave to borrow it"

~~~
a-priori
I've also heard a similar saying, without a religious basis: "Fortune favours
the bold"

------
ljlolel
Limited life experiences + Over-generalization = Advice

-Paul Buchheit

------
menloparkbum
I didn't follow the advice, but the best advice I received was "Don't move to
Boston."

~~~
ardit33
ha... I actually am visiting Boston right now, and lived here for about three
years before moving to SF. Boston/Cambridge area is great if you are going to
school, as they are tons of students around, but after school is done, it
becomes boring really fast, and winters are miserable.

There are lots of smart people around in here, but you are more likeley to
meet the guy with the businness idea that just needs a developer, or the guy
that worked for years, and has enough capital and connections to hire a bunch
of code monkeys to implement stuff, than smart hackers getting together to do
something. A lot of tech jobs around here are boring, (financial companies,
enterprise stuff), and if you are young, it will be a great handicap on how
VCs will treat you.

Boston is just too conservative to be fun.

------
bcater
"Find what race you belong in, drive yourself ruthlessly to win that race. If
you win, great. If you lose, go read some comics and do some beers as there's
no use winning if you can't smile all the way to the finish line."

It's from a coach from long ago, but it has served me well many times outside
of running.

------
prakash
That I need to suffer stupid people elegantly and silently, instead of going
"That's the dumbest thing I have heard"

------
izak30
It was striking to me to see how many of those 13 cited a prominent man in
their lives, here is mine:

When I was about twelve, I was supposed to plant grass over what used to be
our garden one day over summer vacation. My summer breaks were usually
sprinkled with chores like this, and taking care of the house and my younger
sister. This particular day, I didn't feel like doing any of it, so I hit the
dirt with the rake a couple of times tossed the seed around, and went back to
whatever it was I was doing.

My dad came home, and when he took a look at the garden he asked if I did it,
I said yes, and he was obviously disappointed.

"You can't go through life doing half a job, because you'll just have to do it
again"

Then he made me do it again the next day. Certainly the next day was much
better (tilled by hand, seeded and covered with straw) but that really stuck
with me.

------
JesseAldridge
"Look, if you don't wanna do school... just get really good at something. If
you're better than anybody else at something you will always be in demand."

\- Dad

------
Arubis
I've got three:

Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, then tell 'em, then tell 'em what you
told 'em.

When you create, stick to three C's: Clear, Concise, and Complete.

Just Start.

------
car
100% of people who succeeded tried. 100% of people who did not try failed.

------
huhtenberg
I got the best one word advice from a guy from BVP (Bessemer) -

    
    
      Focus
    

meaning "focus on doing just one thing and do it really well". That was in the
context of me pitching him a business plan that included offering the service,
licensing the technology and selling hardware appliances. So he said - focus
and develop exactly one of these things, which is what I eventually did. In a
retrospective that _was_ the best advice between all I received.

------
babul
"You will lose money chasing girls, but you will never lose girls chasing
money"

...from my first employer after he came in to work late once day from what
must have been a crazy night out.

------
cmos
1\. Appreciate how lucky you are to be starting something from nothing.

2\. The less cash you spend the longer you have to make your dream possible.
Spend cash in the right places. Like health insurance.

3\. Never interrupt a good salesperson in the middle of their pitch, even if
they are saying something incorrect. Tell them afterwards, and if it's
important enough they can always call the customer/investor and clear it up.

4\. Read contracts. A lot of the time they don't make sense. Sentences go on
forever. Don't take that crap. Make a lawyer spell things out and simplify.
Make sure you read and understand every detail, particularly investment
agreements. These people are not your friends. They are not your parents. They
are not looking out for your best interests. Your lawyer isn't either. Lawyers
are just making sure you are not going to get sued and such. They are not
looking out for your best business interests. Do not think because a lawyer
says a contract is 'pretty good' that the lawyer has evaluated the business
implications of it.

5\. Don't listen to accountants when they say the word 'profit'. It's an
illusion. It doesn't necessarily mean you made money. You could in fact have
ended the year or month with less cash (and assets) than you had at the
beginning, which sound to me like an unprofitable year or month, but they will
take numbers from an accrued loss and add them up to make profit. This kind of
profit isn't going to help you pay rent or hit payroll. And savy investors can
read through it. Cash is all that matters. So when a suit* say 'cash is king',
which is often their 'advice', what they really mean is focus on the cash
flow, not the balance sheet.

*a 'suit' is someone who has started a few companies and is quite successful, but doesn't remember the early nitty gritty days of suffering and fear, so they like to say things like 'cash is king' to summarize all their mistakes of running out of cash.

6\. Figure out how to make and read a cash flow and balance sheet. It's like a
doctors chart for a business. If you have no revenue, and you have 'project'
revenue in your cash flow chart, make 2 more. One with no projected revenue,
and one with 1/3 what you projected. This tells you how long your company will
survive in the worst case and most likely case scenario. Chances are your
actual revenue will be 1/2 to 1/3 of what you expect it to be (in the
beginning, with no history or trends, and a brand new product in a new market)
The more prepared you are for this the more likely chance you'll have of
surviving.

And, if your 100% right, you have better problems to solve than running out of
money. :)

------
noodle
keep yourself physically as well as mentally active, as mental ability (as
well as other things) are directly affected if you let yourself go physically.

------
pierrefar
Find a job you enjoy doing and you'll never work again.

------
DaniFong
Choose your battles.

------
edw519
Always do the right thing.

------
neb
Be excellent to each other

~~~
delano
Or as Plato put it, "Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

------
aneesh
You have as much credibility as you give yourself.

------
adammichaelc
"Don't work for money. Then you'll just get rich. And it's harder for a rich
man to go to heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Why would
you want to get rich if after you die you can't enjoy the next life?

"Just find what your passionate about and do that. Then you'll love life,
you'll be in a great mood for your wife and kids. And you'll make plenty of
money to get by."

Norm Nemrow, My Accounting Professor at BYU (My hero)

Edit: I don't think I wrote this exactly the way he said it -- he took an hour
and a half to say what I tried to write here in just a couple paragraphs.

~~~
mudge
"be in a great mood for your wife and kids" That's my favorite part.

------
bridgetroll
When I was a wee lad, my grandmother said "Learn something new every day."

------
tom
I got two gems from my Grandfather. I think of both nearly every day. 1\. It's
a poor workman who blames his tools. 2\. Hard work is never easy.

------
andreyf

      Don't pick at it.
    

and

    
    
      Never trust a naked bus driver.
    

Make of them what you will :)

------
rewind
Never burn bridges.

------
signa11
this above all: to thine own self be true...

    
    
                                     - polonius, hamlet
    

edit: maybe this is what underlies the xobni phenomenon that we are watching
unfold ?

------
petercooper
Don't underprice yourself. If half the people you give your prices / figures
to don't say "fuck you" then you aren't in the right price bracket.

------
danw
To read the book "How to be a graphic designer wihtout losing your soul",
lot's of great advice there, even for non-designers

------
okeumeni
My Dad always told me: You’re not entitled to anything in this world, always
give your best and hope for the best!

------
abijlani
This is actually not advice but something I have learned the hard way.

It's not that the situation is bad, it's what you make of it.

------
subwindow
Always smell the milk before you drink it.

------
notauser
I'm not sure it's the best advice but the nugget of useless wisdom I liked
most was:

"Never give people advice."

------
ciscoriordan
Don't put metal in a microwave.

------
drios
"Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men." Douglas
Bader

------
mojuba
Never follow self-referencing advices.

------
staunch
Trust yourself and your intuition.

------
watmough
Write about what you know.

------
simianstyle
always tell the truth

------
jaydub
"Invest" in people

------
kingnothing
Just do it.

------
mroman
Imagination is more important than knowledge.

-Einstein

