Hot answers tagged personal
39
Being at a startup is a lifestyle. Your spouse has to buy into this lifestyle, first and foremost, or things will go south quick.
When I approach my spouse about any startup, I have to sell her on it too. If she thinks it's a waste of time or stupid, then she will not be bought into the long hours or zigs and zags that will happen. So, for me, it starts ...
15
Have you ever seen those virtual stock market games? The best strategy is to minimize your portfolio diversification as much as possible, then as a secondary consideration factor in your market analysis. This works since you have no real downside risk and because someone will plunge everything into some whiz bang stock that goes up forever, hence a ...
13
EDIT:
(Removed long-winded response in favor of a more succinct one)
I learned the following over the past year while writing code, working with a business partner and trying to make it all work with a wife and 2 year old son.
COMMUNICATION is the key. You both need to communicate clearly and the other needs to listen and act.
Flexibility is very ...
11
I disagree that "taking more risks" is necessarily a good idea, or something you should work on.
I feel like you do: That I'm super-conservative, that I'm not willing to take even calculated, sensible risks. And it's worked out really well, because I make careful choices. Because I look to mitigate downside before I worry about upside.
I think these are ...
11
Have at least one co-founder.
The arguments for and against co-founders and how many co-founders shouldn't be repeated here (although it's a great topic generally). But having a family to tend to puts a big hash mark in the "have a co-founder" column.
In general, my personality leads me to being a single-founder, but now with a wife and child I wouldn't ...
10
What has helped with me is:
1) Marry the right person. I'm very independent as is my wife. If my wife wasn't as independent, it probably wouldn't work.
2) Get your financial house in order. Finances are a big marriage killer. Startups can be a big financial drain especially if you're leaving a job and losing income for months or even years. So get your ...
8
Well it needs to be your obsession ... not something you tinker with.
There are a fair few reasons not to start, sometimes I advise people not to
You have clients hassling, suddenly you have 100s of bosses ... many can seem more like screaming children.
Family members are a hard balancing act. Ensure your better half (if you have one) is going to back you ...
7
Stay single. But barring that, my rather unqualified two cents...
Usually it's not the quantity of time together that leads to the most frustration. Being fully unavailable is less frustrating, at least to my particular companion, than being physically present but emotionally unresponsive.
So if you're like me, this means the best thing you can do is: ...
7
Technically, at 15 you can't start a "real" business. The reason is simple. Businesses revolve around contracts and, under common law, a contract with a minor is voidable and therefore is unenforcable. And then there all of the other challenges on top of that.
However, that doesn't mean you can't start a "kid" business. When I was twelve, I typed up a ...
5
A start-up is similar to graduate school in that it is a time-sink and a gamble. You are gambling with your family, so having your spouse as a partner is important, and she should be treated with the same respect as any co-founder.
Make certain you spend time with your family, and if your wife wants to take an overnight trip, then do it.
It may mean ...
5
I get the same feeling in the pit of my stomach and the same voice in my head, but I just ignore it and do it anyway. It's really, really hard - you're overriding your very sensible instincts - but it's really good fun. Exhilarating.
As Teddy Roosevelt said (about bear hunting), the thrill is in overcoming your own fear.
More practically, one technique is ...
5
Reasons not to?
Confidence - you're simply not convinced it's that certain of success to quit the day job, so you launch it as a part time project. (Now there's much to be said for the mere fact it's a part time project means it's less likely to work, reinforcing your opinion. The lack of time, budget and commitment makes it less likely to be noticed)
...
4
I like what John MacIntyre wrote in the answer above. Expanding upon this, I think people in many different professions must be comfortable (i.e., stomach) taking risks, and there's much to be learned from how these people analyze and raise their comfort level around risky decisions.
Along these lines, I remember reading a book called "Take the Risk" ...
4
There's a difference between taking smart risks and being stupid. Taking out a second mortgage and running up personal credit cards is just plain stupid. I think the best way to be able to stomach more risk is to work your ass off to be in the position to take financial risks and not let them hurt you. Get out of debt if you do have some, and build up an ...
4
Seduce your significant other into the business and the great passion and fire that goes with it, so that they to are working insane hours right along with you, and its now something the two of you are sharing, vs. being at opposition with. Of course watch out for the great battles that will erupt once you to disagree on things.
4
There's been a lot of wisdom shared on this thread. Very useful! One thing I would keep in mind is that the dreams that fuel and entrepreneur may seem a bit unsubstantial to significant others, so make sure you also pay attention to their dreams for the future, for the family, for the year, for the weekend, whatever.
Work will disrupt your time with them, ...
4
First, if you have 'mid six figures' income now, you need a good CFO to see what opportunities there are to fund growth out of better financial management. This could be by improving working capital management. And it could be by identifying opportunities to make a better case to your bankers to extend credit through overdraft facilities or term loans, ...
4
1) Nutrition. Fill your diet with "brain foods" and real green tea. Green tea is known for tension-relief, which is good to keep your ideas flowing and free from clouded judgements.
2) Open spaces. Don't lock yourself up in an office or a confined room. Let your mind breathe.
3) Stay social and stay active. Fill your day with fun social activities to keep ...
3
Good time management and self control.
Here's what I do:
1- After coming back from my day job, I spend the time with the family and when the kids and wife go to bed, I start working on my ideas.
2- Two days a week (friday evening and saturday) it's family time only. No work is done.
The point is that you have to let your spouse and kids feel you are ...
3
I agree with Jason that you it's not something that you need to work on even though unlike Jason, I'm a risk taker.
As other point out, there's a down side to taking risk. You could loose your house, your business, etc.
Don't waste time and energy on trying to change a basic personality trait, mainly since it looks like you're actually quite successful. ...
3
Certainly, I think the "rewards" should not put the company at risk in any non-trivial way. So, relative to the question of dire straits being inflicted, this can be avoided by concluding that the money coming out of the company has been assessed as being wastful or under utilized if left in the company.
If there are excess profits floating around and you ...
3
I see two sides to this.
Would you enjoy doing it full time? Or is it better suited / more rewarding keeping it a hobby. If you start working on it full time, your hobby can turn into work. If you really love it, it could turn out to be a great proposition. To quote Confucius "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life".
...
2
The trick is going to be able to identify the right opportunities for risk taking.
Pay Attention:
Start identifying the opportunities for risk taking and start looking at them as opportunities not a threat or panic situation.
Setup a Mentoring Board:
I think you should look around the business community and identify 5 Smart seasoned leaders who all have ...
2
Why would you even want to attempt to change your risk-tolerance? Frankly keeping all the fortune-cookie BS aside, to quote you:
here's the problem. I'm not learning
from my mistakes. Years and years into
this, I still find myself doing this,
yet I can't stop. I'm "pretty certain"
of things, yet want to wait until
things are "all but ...
2
I just had to reply to this question.
Though in most ventures I was in I was an "intrapreneur", at the last venture I was a co-founder. Sadly, company did not work out (many reason, but main was what market has shown us). My wife was the biggest supporter through it all. There is a reason I call her my "angel investor", because she is my best supporter and ...
2
Our company's bank offers free accounts for all founders at no cost (but totally independent from the company's account). Personally, I'm keeping my current personal account as well as the new one, just in case.
Surely, transferring money between accounts in the same bank is faster, but I'd also like to have some money totally "isolated" from the company.
2
Aside from the good suggestions about looking for a bank that specializes in small businesses and transfering money between accounts, the more money you have at a given bank, the more power you have there.
We use the same small bank for both personal and business accounts. Everyone at that bank knows me by name. When I need a personal loan it's easy to get ...
2
Work for a startup - it could even been an unpaid internship. You'll rack up real-world business, networking, and entrepreneurial experience (and even some coding) without accumulating the debt of an MBA. In a startup environment, you'll have plenty of opportunities to bounce your ideas off others and refine your own business plans. I think that would give ...
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