He has a good frame of reference: “I see this as an opportunity for academics in New York to contribute to start-up culture,” says Wiggins, referring to the pivotal role that Stanford’s dean of engineering, Frederick Terman, played in the rise of Silicon Valley.
Stanford is what it is today thanks to Terman's meddling and the army (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo). If Wiggins is NYC's Terman, what's NYC's army equivalent?
In 1939, when Terman encouraged Hewlett and Packard to start a company, Stanford was a farm. Right now, thanks to an 8-year Madoff economy, NYC is one of the most $-rich cities on the planet. I don't think finding an army equivalent will be a hurdle.
Its not clear an "Army equivalent" is needed. For one, its much less expensive to start a company today than it was in Terman's time. Does contemporary NYC have certain assets that were unavailable to Terman in his day? Does NYC really need a single centralized funding source in 2010 or might funds come from a variety of public and private sources?
Is "the Street" like Hotel California: "you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave"? If not, you have no one to blame but yourself for not following your dreams. You may find pity here on HN, but that will hardly advance your goals, right?
How idealistic. The problem is that when you start working in a very high paying job, as finance jobs tend to be, there is a catch. All of that money. By the time you have a mortgage, a care, and a vacation home, it's very hard to get away and you get stuck on the treadmill.
The other side of it is that you could live frugally and save up a massive war chest to fund a startup but most people don't go that route. It's not weakness, it's human nature.
No one forces you to live lavishly. You can rent a small apartment instead of buying a house and having to pay a mortgage, you can travel on a modest budget instead of buying a Summer house you'll use only 2 weeks per year. You don't need a trophy wife if you have some game. You have no one to blame but yourself for your weaknesses. Yes, because living to impress others is weakness.
A couple of friends did what you mentioned. Lived frugally, saved a lot of money, then started their own companies. They're both millionaires now. The guys who were too weak to pull that off are still in "the Street", they lead comfortable lives, but they are miserable... they are slaves to their vanity and to their trophy wives who have a lot to gain from divorce.
This has nothing to do with idealism. It has to do with willpower. Most people lack the will to improve themselves simply because it's too much work and effort...
What you don't seem to understand is that most people can't make themselves see far enough into the future to deny satisfaction. That's not a weakness, that's normal. The ability to see beyond that and delay gratification is a _strength_.
It's something that irks me about people who are gifted with a lot of will power is that they (myself included when I was younger) assumed that people who didn't possess their traits were weak; they're not weak, you're just gifted. I've worked for everything that I have (and I'm not doing too shabby) but I won't pretend for a moment that my position in life isn't due to happenstance of genetics. I can delay gratification, many people can't and that makes me lucky.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 48.5 ms ] threadStanford is what it is today thanks to Terman's meddling and the army (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo). If Wiggins is NYC's Terman, what's NYC's army equivalent?
The other side of it is that you could live frugally and save up a massive war chest to fund a startup but most people don't go that route. It's not weakness, it's human nature.
A couple of friends did what you mentioned. Lived frugally, saved a lot of money, then started their own companies. They're both millionaires now. The guys who were too weak to pull that off are still in "the Street", they lead comfortable lives, but they are miserable... they are slaves to their vanity and to their trophy wives who have a lot to gain from divorce.
This has nothing to do with idealism. It has to do with willpower. Most people lack the will to improve themselves simply because it's too much work and effort...
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/06/self-discipline/
It's something that irks me about people who are gifted with a lot of will power is that they (myself included when I was younger) assumed that people who didn't possess their traits were weak; they're not weak, you're just gifted. I've worked for everything that I have (and I'm not doing too shabby) but I won't pretend for a moment that my position in life isn't due to happenstance of genetics. I can delay gratification, many people can't and that makes me lucky.