Embrace Your Speed And Failure.

Enigmabomb

Enigmabomb

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Feb 26, 2007
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Than Franthithco
Three months ago, I had the notion that I could handle a real job if it was really, really, awesome. I hit the reset button on my life, gave my clients away, told my GF I'm moving to SF, and took a job trading time for money, with a well funded SF start up, with the promise of some equity after a year.

For many of us, the reason we do what we do is to avoid the bounds of an office. I fall into this category, but talked myself into giving this a shot.

Let me tell you some lessons I picked up on.

1) Until someone has paid their bills doing something, they're not an expert in it. Knowing that you can pay your bills doing something is a great "fuck or walk" gut check that unfortunately makes you wildly unemployable.

2) The speed which you can deploy something is fucking staggering compared to any sort of company. Code reviews, approvals, design assets, branding considerations. It takes fucking forever. Your biggest worry is the speed that other affiliates can deploy stuff.

3) A lot of engineers are convinced marketing is just some little secret or hack. They are convinced you can just "hack your marketing" with some little loop hole or piece of leverage. They also assume that marketing is linear. So like managing a team of engineers, they'll want to see work go in, and product come out. They fail to realize that marketing is about failure. Constant failure. Until you're suddenly successful. Embracing that notion is terri-fucking-fying for people who've not failed before.

Just some insight from another perspective.

I'm working on some new stuff, excited to see what the WF community thinks.
 
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CCarter said:
You know if you want to pretend you are banned delete the avatar and signature...

Carry on...​
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this is a pet hate of mine on forums
sogay.gif
 
Congrats dude, good to hear shit is rolling for you (I suspected it was).

Pure engineers (Hacker News types) are oftentimes shitty people to deal with with big boy products because they are purely product oriented, oftentimes to a fault. They don't realize marketing isn't something that "just happens".

The best is discussing SEO with them.
 
It bothers you that my text says banned? Seriously? When did this forum get so ... eh, I guess it's always been that way actually.

G: Unfortunately not, Intel left me a month after I moved. I don't know if I'd quit my good job to move to another city with my volatile bf either.

I'm just happy to be back in a place where I can smash fucking problems without needing anyone else's help.
 
Enigmabomb said:
It bothers you that my text says banned? Seriously? When did this forum get so ... eh, I guess it's always been that way actually.
Click to expand...

Didn't really bother me. I was a little confused when I saw it, cause I thought it was a great posted, and wondered why you were banned so quickly. Maybe it bothers others, but I dunno. I'm pretty sure it bothers the people that are in the same camp that are bothered by my indents :D

Congratz on your journey​
 
Enigmabomb said:
Three months ago, I had the notion that I could handle a real job if it was really, really, awesome. I hit the reset button on my life, gave my clients away, told my GF I'm moving to SF, and took a job trading time for money, with a well funded SF start up, with the promise of some equity after a year.

For many of us, the reason we do what we do is to avoid the bounds of an office. I fall into this category, but talked myself into giving this a shot.

Let me tell you some lessons I picked up on.

1) Until someone has paid their bills doing something, they're not an expert in it. Knowing that you can pay your bills doing something is a great "fuck or walk" gut check that unfortunately makes you wildly unemployable.

2) The speed which you can deploy something is fucking staggering compared to any sort of company. Code reviews, approvals, design assets, branding considerations. It takes fucking forever. Your biggest worry is the speed that other affiliates can deploy stuff.

3) A lot of engineers are convinced marketing is just some little secret or hack. They are convinced you can just "hack your marketing" with some little loop hole or piece of leverage. They also assume that marketing is linear. So like managing a team of engineers, they'll want to see work go in, and product come out. They fail to realize that marketing is about failure. Constant failure. Until you're suddenly successful. Embracing that notion is terri-fucking-fying for people who've not failed before.

Just some insight from another perspective.

I'm working on some new stuff, excited to see what the WF community thinks.
Click to expand...
I've actually done almost the exact same thing, only I didn't relocate. Working at a well funded startup as of Jan 1st.

I'm still involved in my other endeavors, just on a very small scale.

Transitioning from my own marketing agency to full-time has been a big challenge. I thought I could work at a big corp as long as the money was right but I'm already having issues with constraints at this startup.

Power withdraws is the only thing I can describe as the issue. I find myself wanting to get involved in every problem that arises from sales to development. I feel like being stuck in my own box of responsibilities destroys my productivity. If I didn't have my side-jobs I would accomplish so little during the day.
 
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Honestly, I miss working in the office. I miss the regular hours and the consistent faces. Sure, it would get old again after 3 or 6 months, but there are times I miss it.

The grass is always greener.

Take whatever you think an opportunity is, and double the downside and halve the upside and ask yourself, is this still something I want to do?

There is honor in failing, those who get it, get it. I'd rather work with a guy who failed than a guy with a PhD.
 
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