[extropy-chat] Why Australians will never be prosperous

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jul 9, 2005, at 10:03 PM, J. Andrew Rogers wrote:

> Amara wrote:
>
>> Whether it is true or not, perhaps it is a fashionable concept
>> presently..
>> Didn't Steve Jobs say this at Stanford recently? I keep seeing
>> references in the news to this 'hunger' aspect of entrepreneurs.
>>
>
>
> The descriptive of "hungry" has been in use since I first moved to
> Silicon Valley, some 15 years ago.  It is not a new adjective in the
> entrepreneurial world, and certainly not in Silicon Valley.
>
> Many (most?) people think they meet this description, but few actually
> do in practice.  I would say maybe 10% of all startup inclined
> individuals actually qualify based on my personal experience, which is
> not exactly limited.  The very best crucibles are startups that
> bootstrap to profitability over several years rather than being funded
> early.  They will often have a 3-4x staffing turnover along the way  
> due
> to people who couldn't cut it, but there is always a small number that
> can handle the whole ride from inception, no matter where it takes  
> you.
>  Those people are "hungry".  If you are starting a new company, the
> ideal personality type is someone who has survived that kind of  
> fire in
> the past as one can generally be fairly certain they will survive the
> diamond anvil that is the startup business.

Yep.  Many years ago I was employee #9 at a startup.  All of us were  
engineers except for one person doing about 6 jobs at the level of  
secretary, payroll, HR, reception, accounting.  I was used to working  
hard but the early days were killer.  I immersed so deeply and for  
such long hours I thought my brain would explode.  I was there for a  
bit under 3 years.

Now I am starting my own company.  For now it is bootstrap all the  
way.  But I will happily accept money if it doesn't cost too much  
control.

>
> In a nutshell, it is some combination of high competence and a
> constitution of steel in the face of extreme adversity.  Most people
> cannot take that kind of beating for very long.  The ones who can
> survive that environment for years on end are worth their weight in  
> gold
> in a startup environment.  Those people are "hungry".
>

I am re-honing my hunger.  I sated my hunger on whatever paid well  
for too many years.  And though I hate to admit it, it is much harder  
to build and sustain that kind of intense focused energy at 51.

- samantha