Not dissing the general message. Startups can be brutal, but still. Dude is 22 and claims having seen more hardship than others. Try dealing with raising kids, health issues, sick family members, dying friends, mid life (all of which will probably happen as you near the age 40) and a startup will look like a pleasant distraction from the actual hard stuff in life.<p>I,d say enjoy being 22, don’t take yourself to seriously and reflection will come with age.
Some very good points, though the tone slightly reminds me of the the Mark Twain quote: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”<p>It's certainly very difficult to start a business from scratch, and to grow it.<p>A trick is if you can spin off a job into a contract, into a larger contract, etc, with the same customer(s), ideally people who may move to larger companies, and carry the relationship with them.
There's an old adage that successful people surround themselves with success. It's all about cohort - if you don't have other friends who are pushing themselves the way you are, it will be very, very, hard. It doesn't matter if you're in tech and your friend is in gardening, what matters is the shared struggle, and dreams. It helps knowing you're in a boat others have been in before.<p>Spouses/partners can understand and support - but (most) haven't been through it, and there's just a different conversation that can be had with others who have. That's not a negative, it's a reminder that it really does take all types.
Two important points in that essay:<p><i>You will need friends</i><p><i>You will need mentors</i><p>This is 100% true, so I have a question. How do you find those when you're already spending all of your time on your startup and new to town without a support network in place?
<i>If I set out to tell you the story of my life, there isn’t much – and yet, a whole lot! I’ve only been up and around for about 4 years, a happy ignorant high school teenager before that. I have yet experienced more in these four years than most people do in all of their lives.</i><p>Ah, the folly of youth. Of course you are more special than everyone else. Of course you are smarter than everyone else. Of course you have experienced more than everyone else.<p>I certainly was as well at 22.<p><i>”When I was seventeen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-five, I was astonished at how much he had learned in eight years.”</i>
I've already ranted against blog posts titled 'X is Hard'. Yet another hits the top post on HN. Yes, most things are hard, especially when you can describe it in detail as an 'expert'. To a layman, anything can be hard.<p>These always come off as ego pieces to me justifying why they're worth money or why they should be hired. How about you just let your work represent you?
"Most start ups will die because of mistakes made from the one bucket of common errors – about 90% of them. These include bad financial management, hiring errors, product errors, marketing errors, etc. I believe they can be easily avoided, but can also be easily forgotten about when you’re busy hustling."<p>As far as I remember the reason most companies were dying (from a YC survey, I believe?) was product-market fit. This is not something that can be "easily avoided", and certainly not by simply having a mentor.
I think Mark Cuban on Shark Tank used to tell founders this. Don't start a company because you have a world-altering idea. Start a company because you love starting companies.
I mean, if you're experienced, plan ahead (mentally and economically), and have a good idea and product market fit, it doesn't have to be torture, or even that hard. It's like trying to prove a really hard theorem. For Goedel proving the incompleteness theorem was probably incredibly hard, but he did achieve it in the end (thanks to previous experience and training and because he tackled a good problem with respect to his skills), but for most mathematicians that'd be impossible or torture. I know what I'm saying sounds mean or cruel, but I mean it's the truth.
I applaud the kid for taking the jump into entrepreneurship at a young age. The one thing I think young entrepreneurs like him make is never working in industry/corporate/working for multiple startups before they start their own. You need to walk before you run. Its like apprenticeship, you go to a company/companies and learn how processes work, learn what efficiency means, learn how decisions get made, learn different ways of management or how different CEO's run a company, etc. I wish the OP best of luck, dont get to down in the dumps, you are only 22 and have already had an acquisition, and employed 15 people!
Yes it is. Finding a community has helped me greatly. Two years ago it was literally just me.<p>Now I have a therapist, a coach, a private freelancer community, three mastermind groups, an in-person entrepreneur meetup, three Slack groups, and a mailing list I write to and get feedback from.<p>The difference between now and two years ago is massive.<p>Something else that helps is not having a runway. After taking a year off and spending all of my money without much to show for it, I'm all in on the strategy of spending 50% of my time on freelance and 50% on building a business. Infinite runway and way less stress. YMMV.
I don’t find the problem of creating a company to be an interesting benchmark of discussion.<p>Why aren’t we talking about creating ethical companies and how to make it easier for companies to not seek to be corrupt, or set up barriers to corruption that are more verifiably not manipulable by those already with wealth or power?<p>I can’t see how any other angle of discussion about creating companies can be worth anyone’s time until that is better sorted.
I can remember feeling similarly at his age and expressing myself similarly. I think others here shouldn’t fault him for behaving in a manner commensurate with his age and experience level. This guy will mature over time. He will some day be 40 and if he keeps learning like this he might be pretty successful. You could use this opportunity to get to know him.
I like the fact that quotes keep you going for long period of time. I am exactly the same, different quotes have kept me going at different point of my life. This is such a simple trick that many would be quick to dismiss it or to forget about it.<p>One reason to subscribre to /r/getmotivated I guess :)
To complicate matters, you really have to decide ahead of time whether the licensing route a la Stephen Key isn't a better or more efficient option if what you are looking to do is just get a product out there and help people. Not a company, yet potentially more impact.
This article would have been way more interesting if you filled it with actual business lessons and examples. Instead, it's filled with vague self help messages...
Building a company is not hard. (Look around, we are surrounded by businesses).<p>Building financially and ethically sustainable business that employs people that are truly happy to work there IS hard.