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Ask HN: What if I'm not good enough?

17 points by hngoodenough ↗ HN
(This is posted from a throw-away account)

For a long time, I've considered running a business (of ones own creation) to be the best possible occupation. Over the last few years, I have become very interested in the idea of starting a startup. If I had the choice of any path for the next years of my life, I would choose starting a startup with no question.

But, what if I'm not good enough? I would like to apply to YC S2012, but I don't think I have any chance at all of getting in. Firstly, I have the problem of having no idea and no co-founder. But also, personally, I'm just not good enough.

Let me go question-by-question on the YC application form to show what I mean (I'll skip background information questions).

    > Please tell us in one or two sentences about the most impressive 
    > thing that each founder has built or achieved.
I haven't achieved or build anything that impressive yet. Sure, I have played with algorithms and build cool little projects with them. I have even presented at an undergraduate research conference (NCUR - a joke, btw), but I don't have any real, useful accomplishments. None worthy of YC at any rate.

    > Please tell us about the time you, <<real HN account>>, most
    > successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
I really haven't done this either. I have been a play-by-the-rules type my whole life, and I haven't really interfaced with many systems (at least not to the extent to have any reason to "hack" them).

    > Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside 
    > of class or work, that two or more of you created together. 
    > Include urls if possible
Well, without a co-founder, the "two or more of you" part clearly is not going to work. I have a few interesting (for some value of interesting) projects up on github, but they are the sort of things that I imagine that the kind of people who are accepted into YC build in high school (I had no one to teach me how to program in high school).

    > Where do you live now, and where would the company be 
    > based after YC?
Now: A small college town in a less 'forward-thinking' part of the country. Company: Anywhere YC likes.

    > Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you 
    > has discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.)
Anything that I can think to put here ("some professors are much better to learn from than others" or "no programming language has everything you want") were surprising to me when I learned it, but would not be surprising in general. I really haven't been in a position to discover surprising things.

------------

The university from which I am about to graduate is better known for football than for academics. The CS department is tucked in the free space between the chemistry, astronomy, and physics departments in a single building on campus. It is small enough that most all the professors know me on a first-name basis. The curriculum is really not challenging (for instance, no where is a y-combinator even mentioned), and the my fellow students are generally mediocre - not co-founder material. No one there reads HN (afaik).

I haven't had any internships or the like at any of the "cool" places (Fog Creek, Hack NY, etc), and not for lack of trying. I haven't built anything that impressive, and I haven't played with today's most popular alphabet soup yet (Reddis or Node.js or what ever it is right now).

Yes, I have read all the posts about impostor syndrome, but I don't think that that what I'm going through. I know that I am good at CS; my grades and understanding confirm this fact. I feel that, given better opportunities (perhaps having someone to teach me to program as a teen), I might have crossed some proverbial "tipping point" after which I would build more interesting things and get accepted into the cool programs, and ...

9 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 42.9 ms ] thread
squadron
Hey, not being good enough can be an awesome motivator.

There's a saying that goes it's better to be the worst musician in a band rather than be the best. More room to grow.

nzmsv
Even the people who have been accepted into YC and have impressive resumes have their self-doubt: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3655582

Here's an idea: write down the questions from the YC application form and treat them as a todo list. These things look insurmountable at first sight, but I think achieving them simply takes a sustained application of effort. I say "I think" because I haven't checked off all the boxes myself yet :)

stevear
I would consider getting a position at a very young start-up.

A small start-up would appreciate the cheap labor and the enthusiasm for the field that you bring. You will appreciate the chance to sharpen your skills and get experience in all of the tasks that come with being a part of a start-up. If you have some programming knowledge and a solid work ethic you will be a welcome member to some organization. They are taking a risk hiring someone without a deep background and you are taking a risk working for cheap with a company that may not succeed.

Second, I ran across a quote from Linus Torvalds that was along the lines of 'Do you keep track of what Windows is up to when you are working on Linux?' Linus: 'No, I simply do the best that I can.'. I think you need to keep this in mind as you self analyze.

kappaknight
Don't think, just do.

The measure of you being good enough isn't whether you get into YC.

The measure of you being good enough is creating a successful business that is profitable and will hopefully run itself when you leave it.

You're not going to get there without failing a few times and learning some hard lessons, but you can get there if you give it a shot. So what if your first, second, or third business doesn't get accepted into YC? Don't run a business with the goal of getting into YC. Run it because you love the idea and would rather do that than anything else; anywhere.

Like I said earlier... Don't think, just do.

eli_gottlieb
The CS department at my university had nothing about Y Combinator either. It had the largest, most prestigious tech companies handing out job offers and well-known grad programs handing out admission letters instead.

Frankly, not everyone is meant for the Silicon Valley rat race. Not everyone's cool idea can be canned into a website or a mobile-phone app. Some people think differently.

I encourage you to try it. Don't believe in Y Combinator. Don't believe in Silicon Valley and its silly "startup" culture (SV-style start-ups make up the vocal minority of all actual start-ups). What is it you want to do? Believe in yourself.

Giga Drill Breakers will follow.

helen842000
It really all starts with you. You need to build up a little snowball effect.

Pick something you feel that is impressive & enjoyable & work on it for a while (set a deadline of a few weeks for a MVP)

Get your cool projects working on the web & gather links together, create a portfolio of your most interesting work, perhaps start a blog.

Go to some meetups, travel if you have to. Stay longer than the 'event' to chat with other folks - ask what they are working on.

If you can afford, pick a couple of new startups that you think are cool & offer your time/help to them.

Within a matter of months you have projects created & curated, they're visible to those you connect with.

Putting yourself in these situations leads to serendipitous moments that would be impossible to engineer.

You have the main thing - the ability. People are interested in what you do with that & where you take it!

AznHisoka
I'm disappointed you ask whether you're not good enough to get into YC.. Why not ask whether you're good enough to start a profitable business instead? If you're good enough for YC, that just means you can impress others, that's all.
impendia
"A man must love something very much to practice it not only without hope of fame or fortune but without hope of doing it well." -G.K. Chesterton
tstegart
I think you need to learn leadership. You need to learn how to lead. First yourself, and then others. If you haven't done anything on the application, and you want to apply, then start doing them. Lead yourself down the path that will make you get there.

All the problems you mention are solvable by yourself. You can find a co-founder outside your school. In your community, heck, here on HN. Its done all the time. You can buy a scale model bus, a router and a LCD screen and create your own bus schedule timer if you want to hack something like some guy just did: http://blog.jgc.org/2012/03/ambient-bus-arrival-monitor-from... (you know they don't mean hacking in the illegal sense right?)

I don't think the question you should be asking is "what if I'm not good enough," its "why haven't I been motivated to do something in my life yet."

That being said, don't worry if the answer is "I just haven't felt like it yet." Some people make it to the Olympics when they're teenagers, some people bloom late in life and decide to get off their ass. Its all up to you.