As I noted below, nearly all startups fail (including the ones I’ve been involved in). So in my case, the biggest barrier to starting my own company is my experienced judgement that it’s almost never a good idea.
If a >5% chance of getting rich seems worth a <95% chance of wasting several years of your youth, then you do you. That’s how I wasted my own youth. In retrospect I wish I’d picked one of the fun ways, but hindsight is 20⁄20.
If you want to try a startup anyway, here a few bits of advice:
Your company will be very demanding and not lucrative for quite some time. You’ll need slack everywhere else. Avoid debt like the plague. Relationships will be challenging.
When you have employees, their perspective will diverge from yours. It’s not their company. It’s not their dream. It’s just a job to them.
Joining a startup is like going on a blind date. There is a finite number of times you can do it before it becomes incredibly depressing. The first one is an adventure, and the second one you know will be different. After that …
As I noted below, nearly all startups fail (including the ones I’ve been involved in). So in my case, the biggest barrier to starting my own company is my experienced judgement that it’s almost never a good idea.
Just want to note that “most startups fail” doesn’t necessarily mean startups are almost never a good idea; they could be worth it in expectation.
If a >5% chance of getting rich seems worth a <95% chance of wasting several years of your youth, then you do you. That’s how I wasted my own youth. In retrospect I wish I’d picked one of the fun ways, but hindsight is 20⁄20.
Yep, I agree that’s the trade-off, and I agree it doesn’t sound like the right one for a lot of people.
If you want to try a startup anyway, here a few bits of advice:
Your company will be very demanding and not lucrative for quite some time. You’ll need slack everywhere else. Avoid debt like the plague. Relationships will be challenging.
When you have employees, their perspective will diverge from yours. It’s not their company. It’s not their dream. It’s just a job to them.
Joining a startup is like going on a blind date. There is a finite number of times you can do it before it becomes incredibly depressing. The first one is an adventure, and the second one you know will be different. After that …
Good luck!