Guys who took their shot and missed?
Lately there has been lots of talk on this forum about sacrificing the safety and security of finance for the risk and reward of entrepreneurship.
We've all heard the unprecedented success stories; Zuckerberg, Mason etc.
And while Patrick here at WSO and Brian at M&I might not be receiving multi-billion dollar valuations any time soon, both of them make more money and have more free time than they ever did working in finance.
These guys are all successful. What I want to hear about is guys who tried and failed. Does anyone have stories of people who jumped off the track and fell flat on their face? Why did they fail? What would they have done differently? Where are they now?
Anyone?
Yes. One guy from my analyst class in IBD failed at three startups before he got some capital partners together to form a large quickserve restaurant chain that was successful.
Check out the book "Fooled by Randomness." Speaks a bit to this..
I dropped two grand on a start up last year then stopped working on it because of school and work...I keep telling myself I will return to it, or at least start another one for a hell lot cheaper. It was the legal fees and developer costs that killed me.
very rare for your first shot to be a success, I have tried my hand at various business ventures since way back first year of university, and on each one dropped an insignificant amount of money but got out once i realized that the idea isnt really as feasible as I imagined. I am currently starting another business on the side and it seems that the pieces are falling into place which didn't happen before, despite having several what I thought great ideas in the past.
Its not really a question of trying your hand and failing, its making careful bets and getting out once you see a loser, and sticking with it if you see a winner.
I tried to run a domain name reseller business way back in the day- during freshman year of college. Basically, I had an account that cost me $6.95/domain to offer as many domain name registrations through as I wanted, but I could not create additional accounts through the website. Meanwhile, these accounts were selling for $300+, while $7.95 accounts were selling for $100. What I did was set up my own service- using Perl (that long ago)- to give away $7.75/domain accounts for free for an 80 cent markup.
Alas, I did not get the business I had hoped for. Meanwhile, I found that if I stuck my summer job money into oil stocks, I got dividends that helped me cover the rising cost of gasoline. And thus the beginning of my fascination with the capital markets.
I've started a number of businesses, been involved in start ups, and continue to keep my hands in a couple of projects. Truthfully, if you don't have the backing of rich parents or KNOW that it will make money, then do it on the side until it's viable. I would not recommend putting everything into a startup without using some caution, as I started a marketing business that failed SPECTACULARLY and it took me several years to recover financially. A startup can make you a few bucks, it might [BIG MAYBE] make you rich, but it can easily waste a ton of your time or be a fast track to driving your life off a cliff. Think it over and be realllllllly fucking honest with yourself at all times. Personally, I've found that I'm better at taking a small business that's already turning a profit and scaling it up.....that's just me.
Just my 2 pennies worth.
Started an energy efficiency consulting business a few years out of undergrad. Got some business but couldn't earn enough to make it sustainable. Now at an ivy grad school. Was worth the time in terms of learning to sell, market yourself, and figuring and learning much more than I would have at my job before that. Also got me into grad school so it was a win for sure.
That being said, probably wouldn't do it again if I had to re-do it.
To be fair, I'm not sure that Patrick is making more than he would be in finance with this site. In his mixergy interview he said that the revenue was tens of thousands per month, with margins being 75-90%, so that's certainly 100k+ in profit per year, but not necessarily more than he would be earning in finance.
Also, initially he worked a ton to get the site up - probably comparable hours to banking. That's probably changed by now. One big benefit is obviously the mobility.
me it went in he pooper she turned into thor and said release the kraken from my depths, no biggie though i had the shield of hercules
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