For An Entrepreneur, A Bad Boss Isn't A Bad Thing
Inspiring piece by Monte Burk Mark Cuban in Forbes about how bad bosses helped Mark Cuban down the road to success. An excerpt:
Being fired from that job was the determining factor in my business life. I decided then and there to start my own company. I didn't have that much to lose, and it was something that I knew I had to do. I was 25. I went back to that guy with the $15,000 job and told him that I didn't have the money at the time, but if he let me keep this job and the money, I would do the work and it would help me start my own company. He said, "Sure."I started a company called Micro-Solutions. I was a PC consultant, and I sold software and did training and configured computers. I wrote my own programs. I immersed myself in the PC industry and studied Microsoft and Lotus and watched what the smartest people did to make things work. I remember one day I had to drive to Austin for some PC part, to a place called PCs Limited. The place was run by this kid who was younger than I was. We sat down and talked for a few hours. I was really impressed by him. I remember telling him, "Dude, I think we're both going places." That "dude" was Michael Dell.
via @briandaitken
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Crid [CridComment at gmail] at April 1, 2013 12:27 AM
Studies show that a vast majority of entrepreneurs start their businesses after being canned, laid off, or otherwise causing themselves to lose their jobs. I haven't read them for long time, but my recollection is in the range of 85%+.
Very few people have the fortitude to leave comfortable circumstances voluntarily, even if they are miserable in them.
Wambut at April 1, 2013 4:47 AM
Sigh... makes me wish I was 25 again. Too much to lose now.
Cousin Dave at April 1, 2013 6:25 AM
I was as miserable as you can get. Tried everything in my power to get laid off/fired, whatever. I don't think they wanted to pay unemployment, so I had to finally just quit.
Yes, I had TONS to lose, but I could see my sanity heading right out the door, so I made the jump. Now I work for the best boss in the world - myself! Yes, there are hard times (and oh - I'm in my sixties, so this is no young kid with lots of years to make it up, either).
Sometimes you just have to make the change, because life is too short to spend it doing what you absolutely, unequivocally HATE.
gharkness at April 1, 2013 8:07 AM
> life is too short to spend it doing what
> you absolutely, unequivocally HATE.
YOU ARE NOT WRONG.
I mean that, Dood-Man-Bro!
!
Word!
But... IJS... Sometimes young people (especially) have to squat and stew in shitty circumstances for a while before they make that one trip home after work to frozen food and nothing to read, watch or fuck, when they realize that they've never done a fuckin' thing in their whole wretched lives to be useful to another human being... Never created a dime's worth of wealth or a kiss's worth of warmth.
Capitalism works because it respects humility. Everything else is corruption.
(For more, see The Honda Years.)
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at April 1, 2013 7:55 PM
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