Trying to succeed as an entrepreneur for 10 years. Should I quit? Anyone else?

I'm 50 and have experienced many failures, yet I still work for myself and have managed to secure funding for my latest project and even got invited to submit a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation.

Edison said, famously, "I can't tell you what works but I can tell you 1,000 things that don't work." Thirty is still quite young; you have lots of life and ideas in you left. If you were born with the entrepreneurial spirit, I say keep at it. You might need to pivot to a different project or even a different industry, but I wouldn't recommend giving in or giving up!

For me, it's always helped to identify real-life heros, people who have achieved what you want. Read their bios. Learn everything you can about their struggles, their failures, and their successes. Mark Cuban said that overnight success takes a lifetime. May that inspire you!

Would you rather end up a middle class retiree that played it safe, or die an entrepreneur who worked on this they were passionate about regardless of the financial outcome? Personally, I’d rather die broke with a life full of adventures that sometimes payed out and sometimes didn’t, rather than comfortably numb in a retirement home on social security.

Don’t quit. It seems you have an entrepreneurial spirit. To me you sound quite successful. There is a difference between succeeding and winning. Coach John Wooden said it best. You might enjoy his talk. [1]

You were speaking about your friends making 6 figures. Examine how success would look like for you? Is it money? Running your own company and being an entrepreneur is way more than making money. Along the way you will acquire a lot of unique stories and experiences. They will be very different to your friends stories since they are most likely on a low risk, capped opportunity environment.

30 is still very young. You have many choices and paths still ahead of you. Very exciting. I guess this it what makes life beautiful. I wish you all the best.

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_betw...

I don't mean to put you off. I give you kudos and credit for sticking it out. However I personally feel you do need to decide the right path as you put it. Like chrisked was saying you need to ask yourself what success means. Let's face it for most people it's all about the MONEY as much as some people would like to deny it and say it's all about the passion. How much would passion count when all you're making is £15,000 with a £150,000 mortgage over your head including living expenses or you're just trying to buy yourself a decent house in a decent area? I think for all humans it's not about the MONEY per say, it's what you can do with that money; financial security, holidays, buying stuff etc

Now you can carry on doing what you're doing for the "passion" but when you die what "experiences" will you really have? Dealing with really difficult clients, going to business meetings working all day and night, is that really an adventure? Mean while the ones that played it safe got married, had kids, lived fulfilling lives, travelled the world. So in reality who had more life experiences? The individual who played it safe or the entrepreneur who barely slept and worked himself to death?

Don't mean to be a party poop but I do feel it's an important decision for you to make. I think all too often we all get carried away with this idea of "don't quit" but sometimes you have to just draw the line when you're making a loss.

I'm just going to end quoting Einstein: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results"

All the best pal.

This is somewhat relevant if you already have a business: https://twitter.com/jasonlk/status/1131951740943839232

I was around a lot of entrepreneurs growing up, mostly small business owners. Sometimes they made money, sometimes a lot of money. There were also times in between when they made no money and had to borrow from each other to keep from losing everything. They kept doing it because they loved it and didn't want to work for anyone else.

It's a rollercoaster, but I don't think any of them regret it.

I think you should try 9-5 job for some years. If you like, good for else. Else, you will have clarity on why you want to be an entrepreneur

What lessons have you learned from each failure? How can you take your experience forward into your next opportunity?

Failure is the default state of new businesses. The key question is if you’ve learned enough each step of the way to reduce the scope of your next effort — in other words, it’s fine to fail, just don’t fail the same way again.

You’re only 30 — you’re incredibly young, and you’ve got decades of career path ahead. One thing that I’ll note is that the myth of the twentysomething startup genius is mostly just a myth, high-profile examples notwithstanding. Most successful businesses are the result of a lot of experience in a specific area, which opens the door to finding problems that need to be solved. In other words, there’s nothing wrong with spending time in the corporate world with the intent of finding new business opportunities; it’s not like your entrepreneur card is going to get revoked if you go back to industry.

Look for a job in a company similar to what you want to do. Make sure the company is small but on going and is growing. Your job is to learn useful skills from your experience. There are many parts to a successful company and it helps if you learn from one that is successful. Do this for a few years but plan for your exit and how you will use your experience to run your own company.

I wouldn't think about it as an either/or. In fact, from my limited circle of friends in Silicon Valley, I would actually say the most common route to entrepreneurship is something that starts as a side project.

There is a great deal of research showing the 20-year-old Mark Zuckerberg model of entrepreneurship to be a myth. Find a job that interests you, provides you with room for learning and pays the bills, and keep an eye on your entrepreneurial dreams.

[https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes...]

I am in the same boat. Running out of money and depressed. I have another idea that I am trying to get seed money. I am looking for a job, but really, I have been dragging this for as long as possible. You aren't the only one. I know a few friends that are going through this as well.

I went through the same thing. Took me ~20 years to find success. Biggest factor (hindsight is 20/20) was deciding to only consider businesses that had both competition and a business model.

Most frequent mistake of entrepreneur wanabees is "building solution and then looking for a problem to solve".

Try either build something for a problem you facing yourself (likely many others do too) or build something for which you know existing customers-to-be ready to pay you today to solve.

The notion that you can't be an entrepreneur in a "9-5 day job" is one of the most pernicious myths in the tech industry. My current team in a company of nearly 100,000 is very much operating like a couple of the startups I've been involved with in years past. True, there's a lot of politics in the greater organization, but our manager is brilliantly insulating the team against that and is effectively implementing lean thinking, customer-first design and decision making, rapid failures and pivots, product autonomy, and a strong sense of team identity and camaraderie.

If we succeed, we may not get bought out with the first 4 or 5 people who started the company walking away with millions while the rest of us are largely left out. Instead, we all make a steady income with medical benefits and are filling up our 401(k)s. And if things don't work out, we'll all still have jobs.

Try to find out what you really want. I'm thinking about the same. I came across this mental strategy that helps: https://woopmylife.org/woop-1

This is an old article but still very applicable today http://www.paulgraham.com/startuplessons.html For the products that failed, did you follow those steps? What is the main cause of the failures (any commonalities between them)? I would say don't give up, but also look critically and have mentors look at the failures so you don't repeat your mistakes.

You bought into the hype. You thought people become successful mostly because of the merits of their ideas and their ability to execute on those ideas.

What you need to be truly successful is politically connected investors that will pump and dump your company. During this pump and dump scheme, you might actually start taking a profit, and you can skip the 'dump' step.

Otherwise, if you want to get rich writing software, get in line with the rest of us.

My 2 cents. +1¢ - Posting here for help is a clear sign you are far from being done in. Failed ppl typically wanna keep it for themselves. You probably are just angry and feel (justifiably) unlucky. Luck is a great part in making it. +1¢ - you define successful by a made up device of your own. Some crazy image of a 20 smthg millionaire. Redefine what success means and you will be instantly successful. From outside this sounds a lot like you are externally motivated. Not good. Comparing yourself to 9-5ers is a guilt trip you should avoid. Be self centered. My 2¢ come down to: reset you unreasonable expectations, rinse and repeat. GOOD LUCK

30 is young dude. Wow. Middle-aged? I'm 35 and I would never let myself think that way.

Maybe it's time to take a break and work a normal job for a year or two just to let your mind relax and build up the energy to go at it again.

You’ve given up a lot of future income - a lot. Do a FV calculation on 150-200k a year in your 20s (working 10 years and compounding 30) over 40 years. Work the next 10 years and then go back to being an entrepreneur.

Having walked a similar path, I like to refer to this quote when things are down.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt

I have been going at it on and off since 2002. I work a day job, but I still enjoy trying to make something people want.

On my most recent project, teaching kids how to program, I am taking a different approach.

I am trying to do market research first. Figure out if there is an audience and what their needs are. Make something people want to buy.

All my previous attempts were just ideas I had or contracts that had no long term potential.

As an engineer, I got carried away with using new technology and adding tons of features. There was no audience. After reading a few books on different approaches, I have changed how I see it.

So..

I would say keep going, but if you can manage a job do that. Keep working on a side project, but only one idea at a time. Give it enough time to see it through.

Nearly every post so far is rah-rah pep, and while I agree with most of the sentiment I’m going to offer some different advice.

Before 30 I hustled a lot to make enough to have roomates and live a fairly frugal life. I had family obligations that kept me from some personal goals. But largely I was saving money and even though I worked 2 jobs I enjoyed life.

30 was when I started working as a dev, making substantially more money. And while I was hoping to sock away 50% of my gross income for a couple years, so I could pursue some entrepreneurial ideas, it logistically got harder at 30.

Friends were starting to have kids or just move in with their significant others. Just finding a cheap room with people I wanted to live with got significantly harder. At the same time it was harder to be that guy socially who would show up to a potluck without a significant contribution and have a real reputation for being a mooch from people who know your earning potential based on general skill sets.

On top of that life happened. I moved in with my girlfriend. I had got married. I got a herniated disk. I had a kid. I bought a house. I had another kid (surprise! twins!). And now, at 41, I can almost breath again. I am very grateful for having stable income during the rollercoaster that was my 30s, I’m not sure how I would have survived. I certainly didn’t have the energy or time to focus on building much of anything during that time (though I did try some projects, one of which might be worth something if I hadn’t burned out on it).

So I will tell you this. You can put off certain things until early 30s. But if you think you want kids, or even just a good relationship with someone else, 30 is starting to be a time to think about earning solid money instead of trying to build something that will still consume your attention after 5pm. The pick up the torch again in your 40s or even 50s if you want to build something. With any luck you’ll have more capital to work with which will make things easier.

Keep in mind, I’m not telling you to give up. Or that you need to catch up with anyone. Only that there is no shame in putting off some things, to build some reserves and focus on other things that can’t wait.

And if you have no desire for kids (and kids are a pain in the ass, and I’m not sure when they’re finally worth it), then really there’s really no reason to stop trying until other obligations (say a girl/boyfriend) force you to.

edit: I didn’t mean to imply significant others would ever force you to stop (ones who did would probably not be healthy to stay in a relationship with). Only that some obligations are worth putting some things on hold for a year, or a decade...

If you truly are an entrepreneur, you will be utterly miserable doing anything else.

There is a knowing.

I recently did the same thing. Hit 30; reflected on last decade. I had moderate success consulting but didn’t get a single product off the ground. Considering the lost potential earnings, the need to reset savings and the lack of a pension I thought it prudent to get a full-time job. I’ve now been employed for 8 months or so and it’s a huge relief. Formerly every waking hour was working on the product. Now it’s 9-5 working for the man and then have the rest of the time to relax. It’s been truely impactful. I’ve started reading again and am much happier! Being an employee isn’t for me but I will stay with new status quo for a couple of years, get a healthy financial buffer and start something else again. I’m working for a medium sized company and am an engineer with limited responsibilities.