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Ask HN: Founders, how did you manage to actually get to work?

2 points by wcarss ↗ HN
Ideas are easy - but choosing which idea to follow, then following it, remains hard. How did you choose, and then, how did you force yourself to execute?

Among my friends, I've been exposed to dozens of good ideas this summer, but no one seems willing to settle and just work on what we have in front of us. We're all always seeking "a new idea", and abandoning the tiny bits of work we've done so far. How did you manage to stop searching and just work?

6 comments

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wcarss
I made this after reading back through AskHN's to try not to overlap something recent. Then I posted it, and just down the newest list, saw "Ask HN: What stops YOU from starting today?", at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1613709

I'm concerned that these are awfully similar - if I get a downvote or a post of complaint, I'll remove mine. I'd still really like to hear responses, though.

vgurgov
I posted "Ask HN: What stops YOU from starting today?" and then found your post and replied it. :) Dont think we are so similar. Although I think answering my question might help you to understand yourself better.
vgurgov
Searching, reading TC and HN, chatting w friends are fun. Work is hard and not so fun.

Mostly ppl prefer fun activities(Reading HN vs Working)

Finding good idea is easy - good execution is hard.

wcarss
Well, then, is any decent idea really good enough? We tirelessly shoot holes in our plans, and lose motivation, becoming sure of failure. Should we just run with whatever our hands are on at some certain point?
vgurgov
Well if your definition of "decent" is same is mine than YES! Any decent idea is good enough! Any! Just take it! And do it with dedication and love! And remember that long term plans are BS in our industry!

You kno for me the biggest fear factor was always competition. I remember how i was scared to start my first company. Back then I earned my first $100 or something by writing code. That was enough motivation for me to quit my well paid job and start a sw development company. I remember how i was afraid of competitors. There were thousands companies doing same shit! And I was no better in any means! Ffd 3-4 years it was business that make me what i call rich enough(not FU money, but still very well stable income and nice 5-digit bank account) Now every time i start something new i still afraid of competition. Hey there is an app/site for anything in the web, how can I be better? But i always think about my own history, i think about facebook after myspace, google after yahoo, microsoft after ibm etc. If you are smart enough -you can do it, just start workin f..ng hard!

adn37
I had a teacher that used to say: if you don't (dare to) ask, you are already said no. This is the same with trying and success.

Though, going forward is also a chance of taking the route of another failure.

As for me, I failed once, after investing massive free time in a web project for 1 year. I built it, they didn't come. I recently decided to start over with friends on a smaller project that values manually added content over technical execution and design.

What gets me to work is: 1/ going forward is fun, 2/ not doing anything doesn't make things get any better.