[SoftTalker]

Varies but mostly you go get a job for a while.

[moralestapia]

The secret is that sometimes you just have to ... sigh ... work.

[jollofricepeas]

Of course.

We work jobs and do our thing on the side like most traditional American entrepreneurs do until their business gets off the ground.

Who the hell is bootstrapping businesses without a job besides rich kids?

1. Get a cheap apartment in a slightly sketchy neighborhood

2. Work 7-8 hours at work and every other waking hour on your business. Take meetings during lunch.

3. Focus to the point of cutting out sports, video games, bars and other frivolous shit until you’ve made progress. Don’t date if you can.

Discipline wins the race.

And when you fail; which you will.

Do it all over again until you find success.

[oxfordmale]

There is a parable I can't remember. The gist is as follows.

A man/woman has a nice life, a cheap apartment in an okay neighbourhood. Their 9-5 job isn't particularly exciting or well-paid; however, at the weekend, it allows them to enjoy sports, video games and other frivolous activities, such as dating and hanging out with their partner or children.

A stranger approaches them and says they make a much better life for themselves. He tells them they just need to get a cheap apartment in a sketchy neighbourhood, work all waking hours of the day, and give up any fun until they make it. They may fail five times until they succeed and may be declared bankrupt.

After listening, they ask what their life looks like after they make it. He answers it allows them to have an okay apartment in a more expensive neighbourhood, and they can enjoy sports, video games and other frivolous activities, such as dating and hanging out with their partner or children.

They smile at the stranger, and say "But I already have most of this right now". The stranger walks off wearily.

[jollofricepeas]

…And that is the difference my friend.

This is life.

Life is inequality.

Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur or has the desire to do what it takes to become one.

Trying to convince someone to become an entrepreneur is like trying to convince someone to become a professional athlete or musician.

You must sacrifice frivolity for excellence.

But excellence can always dabble in frivolity.

The choice is ours to make.

[oxfordmale]

It is a misconception you need to sacrifice frivolity for excellence.

[altdataseller]

The parable is about a fisher

[oxfordmale]

Do you happen to have an URL to the parable?

I was confusing it with a man sitting below an olive tree, maybe a variant of the fisher one.

[altdataseller]

https://joneytalks.medium.com/the-parable-of-the-mexican-fis...

[doetoe]

> Do it all over again until you find success.

For which you may have to be somewhat lucky

[berniedurfee]

Sounds like fun?

[dieselgate]

Indeed. I’m not an entrepreneur or anything but liken it a bit to having a good initial poker hand - you can win with one good card but it is helpful and gives one more options to have two good cards.

So in the context of bootstrapping a company it’s helpful to have a legit fallback (way to suck it up and find an OK job) when things don’t pan out.

Edit: maybe this is obvious for CS/software folks but the extracurricular work I’m involved with is not exactly tech related, though my day job is coding