How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2008/08/confidence-start-business.html/

by procyon • 18 years ago

13 14 18 years ago

The insight for Tipjoy was that the worst case scenario was going back to fun jobs at big companies. Probably with a raise and a promotion too.

tonystubblebine• 18 years ago

I joined two other startups and realized that there's no magic to it, just a lot of hard work.

te_platt• 18 years ago

I got my initial confidence through spectacular ignorance of the difficulties involved. Confidence grows as problems are solved.

stcredzero• 18 years ago

That describes how I got my start in music.

I wonder if there's parallels between child prodigies in music and in coding? I wonder if the labor of child prodigies might be some kind of untapped resource? (Early to mid teens. Maybe there's some black hat hackers out there like that?)

Perhaps best if this remains speculation forever.

eru• 18 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_method

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20050614-000002....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Polg%C3%A1r

vaksel• 18 years ago

Simple really, risk vs reward.

ericwan• 18 years ago

Don't take myself too seriously.

mattmaroon• 18 years ago

When my mom told me I could do anything I wanted, I actually believed her.

comatose_kid2• 18 years ago

I modded you up for that, but someone else modded you down....

Self confidence is one of the largest indicators of entrepreneurial success.

lsc3• 18 years ago

confidence is for marketing guys

you should make important decisions on the rational level, not the emotional level. You should weigh the risks and rewards in a rational manner, rather than running with what you feel. Feelings can be quite mercurial, and if you quit after you have a depressing weekend, or (sometimes worse) get in over your head and charge up lots of personal debit because you 'feel good' you can get in a lot of trouble.

Once you find that there is a positive expected return, keep making rational decisions.

But then, my start up isn't making any money, so what do I know?

comatose_kid2• 18 years ago

Unless I misunderstand your use of 'confidence', that's exactly wrong.

Confidence is necessary for anyone who wishes to achieve anything extraordinary. It'll come in handy when you're working on a dinky little idea that no one else understands or respects. It'll come in handy when you're quitting your day job, driving a crummier car than your neighbors, and working late into the evening for $0/hr. It'll come in handy when you're asking investors for money. Need I go on?

If you make important decisions solely on a rational level, how in the name of all that is holy could you ever start a company? What if your rational decisions never lead you to a 'positive expected return'?

lsc3• 18 years ago

One can commit to a plan while recognizing that it has a relatively small chance of success. The only other way to get past the startup phase of the business is to actively conceal the truth from yourself. To aim for "confidence"

lsc3• 18 years ago

are you trying to say that starting a company is an irrational act?

jimgreer• 18 years ago

Male enhancement!

Seriously it was the same thing ivankirigin said - what's the worst that can happen?

How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

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