Sold my startup for nothing just before it took off. Now i'm broke. Need advice.

[ahugefool]

How do you recover from a success (first success after a multitude of failures) that you let slip through your fingers - by selling just before it took off?

It is eating me alive. I'm almost back to square one (broke, no ideas) and can hardly hold myself together.<p>I try to pump myself up to try something new but the thought that had i held on just a little longer i wouldn't even be in this position saps my productivity.

Faced with the prospect of having to reenter the job market (after having actually built something that works) is a nightmare that i never thought would be realised. But here i am.

Every day - completely paralysed by the outcome of my decision.

Really would appreciate anyone's advice here.Thank you.

[DocG]

Congratulations!

You managed more than most of the start-ups! Your idea was worth it and it will go and change part of the world. It was your doing.

By now, you have experience in starting, you have confirmation on your ideas. This is bigger win in long term.

Bummer that you didn't get paid in money, but money comes and goes. You will do fine. being a employee for a while, might be a nice change to reflect on your experience and work on your ideas. Less hectic and more stress free change.

[ahugefool]

Thank you for taking the time to write this. You have no idea how much i appreciate it.

[o-o-]

Lurker here; I just created an account solely to upvote this.

[username99]

Get out of bed and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Life goes on. Do the following actions:

1. Get at least 8 hours of sleep every day. Go to bed at a reasonable hour, and get up when you wake up.

2. Get a small notebook and a pen. Carry them with you everywhere.

3. Eat properly. No excessive junk-food. Don't skip meals.

4. Ever day for at least 1 hour, go to a quiet place and bring out your notebook. Spend the entire hour writing out ideas. It doesn't matter if they are good or bad. Just write them out. Do it. The point is to use your "idea muscles".

5. Spend at least 1 hour every day walking, running, moving, or doing something to make your body active and actually get your blood pumping. Even if it's just 5 minutes here, and 2 minutes there... do that a bunch of times every day.

6. Repeat step #4 at least two or three times per day.

With the above steps, you will condition your body and brain to be a thinking machine. You'll find after a week or so, it will become easier and easier to think up ideas for your notebook. Soon you'll have hundreds of ideas written down. Eventually you'll get an idea for a new startup that just work. Pursue it! (Don't stop the steps above, though... maybe just limit them a bit.)

Remember, your brain is a muscle. Exercise it. Keep your body in decent condition because it feeds your brain.

[ahugefool]

This situation has led me to James Altucher's blog a few times . This sounds a lot like his advice. I think it's great. I'm going to go ahead and take it and buy a notebook today.

Thank you.

[desipenguin]

I was about to say "James Altucher" :) Best Wishes !!

[lazyjones]

- What was it that your startup lacked while you were in charge? Be honest with yourself so you can learn from this experience and do it better next time.

- Perhaps this will come across as cynical, but your current position has several advantages too: a) you don't have much to lose, b) your potential is higher than what you're currently going through, so it's likely that your situation will improve, c) you are experiencing a situation that is very common these days, it might inspire you to create something that will be of use to many people

Find yourself a job to stay afloat and plan for the future. Of course you can do it again!

[ahugefool]

It can be very hard to see these positives. But it is true. They are there. The mind seems to love to play awful tricks when things go wrong.

Thank you very much.

[bmm6o]

Following on GP's advice, you might find it therapeutic to write something up about your experience. What (if anything) could you have done differently to be more successful? What skills should you work on to be more successful in the future? If you're up to writing a blog series, I think you've got a big potential audience and you could make some decent ad revenue from it. Do it anonymously if you wish.

[neilk]

You're paralyzed because you now believe that you are 'ahugefool'.

Step one would be to try to find some way out of that pattern of thinking. No wait - step zero is to not give yourself usernames like that.

If you're an ordinary human like the rest of us, your brain goes haywire with low-probability/high-consequence outcomes. You'll want to punish yourself in proportion to what you missed out on. But maybe you should consider evaluating yourself on what knowledge you had at the time?

I think you need to engage in some "accounting" of everything you did, with someone you trust, like a therapist or a person whose business advice you trust.

Maybe you can try cognitive-behavioral therapy, with a trained therapist. You start with your negative thoughts like "I'm a huge fool" and recursively break those down until you arrive at baseline observations and facts. If you're a programmer this highly rational mode of therapy may work well for you. You will almost certainly find that your negative conclusions about yourself aren't warranted.

[Tomte]

Being an employee is no nightmare.

That said, having been close to a bug payout sucks, but it's basically the same as standing at the roulette table "if I had only bet 28 black" when you missed your number by one.

Agonizing over "close, but not quite, good luck" is human, but it leads nowhere.

[wikwocket]

Good analogy about roulette. How and when things go viral and take off can be as random as any casino game.

And most importantly, what happens at the table after you walk away has no effect on you. You left the game when you decided to. Asking "What if I had bet one more time?" is a rabbit hole that can paralyze and cripple your forward decision-making.

Relatedly, you may want to look up the idea of a sunk cost: things that happened in the past are done with, and cannot be changed. Sunk costs are irrelevant to your plans for the future. It is very very tempting for us to dwell on things like this, but ultimately it is healthier (and more strategically profitable) to look forward, not back.

[bengali3]

1. remember, "only the mediocre are always at their best" 2. get Seth Godin's blog via email

p.s i wish i had a startup success under my belt, if you and I are starting at the beginning of the next startup race, then you clearly have an experience advantage. Hey, give it to me if you aren't going to use it :)

[danfalos]

Give yourself courage , i started mine left me broke and i closed it stayed without work for an year but did some mear jobs here computer hardware repair and enhanced my knowledge nowadays when people ask me i feel good telling them i got broke and closed it but am better now knowledge wise and am planning to start it again and this time it will pick up ... be proud you started it and remember the way and the ideas you had are still there and you can even start and enhance it more ..... i read the guy who started Github left to stsrt another you can also do so ... think of an idea you will succeed again.

[ibstudios]

One wrong decision prevents all future decisions?

This is a stress and you need to build your self confidence to get out of the self doubt loop. You aren't living when you are thinking of the past.

Create, create, create!

good luck!

[ahugefool]

Thank you

[Im_Talking]

I wouldn't knock yourself on the head about this. Most times the first time someone tastes success, they make someone else rich. It's only the second taste of success that makes you yourself rich.

I made my first boss quite wealthy with my software. But it allowed me to understand business and I learned well.

Try to use your experience to come up with ideas within the same industry/domain/etc. Did you sign a non-compete?

[macguyver]

Kudos, what I've learned:

- When we don't get what we want, we get something even better than what we originally wanted

- Events that lead to the best outcomes often are disguised as failures

- We always get what we need

Best wishes to you. If only there were a startup that made it easy for founders to find jobs/gigs after their startups.