I built a product next only to become a failure. Later I tried launching one more company & 4-7 other software products which also failed or never saw the launch.
My friends who were leading a normal 9-5 day jobs are getting promoted to 6 figure salaries and Managements positions.
I am in my 30's. I do have a contract job as a designer now. But also trying to succeed as an entrepreneur on the side.
Feeling like I should just give up and try to catch up with the rest of the world.
When I try to see the future, I no longer see a successful entrepreneur. Instead a middle aged man with failures.
I am 30 now. I should choose the right path.
Anyone who went through the same and then either succeeded or gave up. I would like to know your views. Thanks a ton in advance.
Edison said, famously, "I can't tell you what works but I can tell you 1,000 things that don't work." Thirty is still quite young; you have lots of life and ideas in you left. If you were born with the entrepreneurial spirit, I say keep at it. You might need to pivot to a different project or even a different industry, but I wouldn't recommend giving in or giving up!
For me, it's always helped to identify real-life heros, people who have achieved what you want. Read their bios. Learn everything you can about their struggles, their failures, and their successes. Mark Cuban said that overnight success takes a lifetime. May that inspire you!
You were speaking about your friends making 6 figures. Examine how success would look like for you? Is it money? Running your own company and being an entrepreneur is way more than making money. Along the way you will acquire a lot of unique stories and experiences. They will be very different to your friends stories since they are most likely on a low risk, capped opportunity environment.
30 is still very young. You have many choices and paths still ahead of you. Very exciting. I guess this it what makes life beautiful. I wish you all the best.
[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_betw...
If we succeed, we may not get bought out with the first 4 or 5 people who started the company walking away with millions while the rest of us are largely left out. Instead, we all make a steady income with medical benefits and are filling up our 401(k)s. And if things don't work out, we'll all still have jobs.
What you describe is an illusion of control. I've tried to fool myself into thinking this would work for me, but in the end, I always felt like something was missing.
Teams like the one the other poster described definitely exist. They are also rare but and take work to find. Are you sure the times where you felt like "something was missing" was more of a factor of being on a team that advertised themselves as fast paced while not actually being one?
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The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Now you can carry on doing what you're doing for the "passion" but when you die what "experiences" will you really have? Dealing with really difficult clients, going to business meetings working all day and night, is that really an adventure? Mean while the ones that played it safe got married, had kids, lived fulfilling lives, travelled the world. So in reality who had more life experiences? The individual who played it safe or the entrepreneur who barely slept and worked himself to death?
Don't mean to be a party poop but I do feel it's an important decision for you to make. I think all too often we all get carried away with this idea of "don't quit" but sometimes you have to just draw the line when you're making a loss.
I'm just going to end quoting Einstein: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results"
All the best pal.
That quote is suspicious for a physicists, who do the same thing a gazillion times in an accelerator and expect different results (and when they get them , they get a nobel)
There is a knowing.
I think that it's a bad world out there in many ways. When your back is up against the wall, it's a good time to think whether you want to use that opportunity to learn to emotionally deal with risk, anxiety and maybe even crisis. Because how you deal with a situation in which the shit properly hits the fan will decide a lot about what comes after it for you.