I can't disagree with that. It's a reasonable point.
But when I left school, I used tens of thousands in credit card debt to build my first business because I just HAD to be an entrepreneur and there was no other way.
- I didn't want a side job, because I felt it would be an excuse to procrastinate when the going got tough at my startup.
- I couldn't raise money, because I didn't have the slightest clue where to begin. (All the books I bought on how to raise VC money were useless. My family didn't have the cash. And my family friends kept telling me I should get a job.)
I would have given anything just for a chance to start a business. My kid brother and I actually talked about me selling a body part to raise money. Sounds ridiculous now, but it shows how determined (desperate?) I was to be an entrepreneur.
Losing my money, credit, house, etc, all that meant nothing in comparison to a shot at being like the people I admired.
I wonder if you can make it without that kind of determination. I wonder if someone who thinks rationally about not taking on too much debt can have the irrational passion to be an entrepreneur (or to do anything exceptional).
I wonder if you can make it without that kind of determination. I wonder if someone who thinks rationally about not taking on too much debt can have the irrational passion to be an entrepreneur
I'm thinking "You can" and "Plenty of people do", and that we just filter out their stories because they don't fit the narrative.
Again, 37 signals like VoodooPC is just an exceptional example. That's why it is useful to look at aggregate numbers like the UVA/Darden study (I'm still trying to find an online copy for you guys) which tells you what the majority of successful entrepreneurs (who themselves are already a minority of entrepreneurs) do.
And the majority of successful entrepreneurs do not invest assets based on their perception of the magnitude of the opportunity but rather on their own idea of acceptable loss.
Stripped of the emotional mumbo-jumbo and romantic appeal of putting literally everything into an investment, the statistically successful position makes perfect sense.
But when I left school, I used tens of thousands in credit card debt to build my first business because I just HAD to be an entrepreneur and there was no other way.
- I didn't want a side job, because I felt it would be an excuse to procrastinate when the going got tough at my startup.
- I couldn't raise money, because I didn't have the slightest clue where to begin. (All the books I bought on how to raise VC money were useless. My family didn't have the cash. And my family friends kept telling me I should get a job.)
I would have given anything just for a chance to start a business. My kid brother and I actually talked about me selling a body part to raise money. Sounds ridiculous now, but it shows how determined (desperate?) I was to be an entrepreneur.
Losing my money, credit, house, etc, all that meant nothing in comparison to a shot at being like the people I admired.
I wonder if you can make it without that kind of determination. I wonder if someone who thinks rationally about not taking on too much debt can have the irrational passion to be an entrepreneur (or to do anything exceptional).