Start with the beginning: "When I was 17 and a high school drop-out..."
followed by the (near) ending: "I was 22 at the time and making roughly twice what she was..."
So there's about five years in between the high school dropout and twice his mom's income stages. Success, but not what I'd call overnight. In between, we have...
- "Burning the midnight oil..."
- "...I got turned down again and again and again."
- "After 18 months of me beating down the doors of the HR department..."
- "Another 9 months and I got a call."
- "...apply for *every* programming job in the last 2 1/2 years"
and so it goes for a little more.
I have to say, I leaned a little more in Max' direction when I first read it, but give it a little thought, and the real message is, don't give up hope! Getting and running your own company isn't going to be easy. You'd be crazy to think it is! BUT, if you're willing to work your ass off for it, you can get there.
Even if it takes five years.
Hell, it could take ten, or even longer, but if that's enough to stop you, it'll probably take forever, so why worry?
As for the talentless hack, you might want to look a little closer at his story, too. He might not be so talentless, himself. The guy you describe apparently knows enough to:
- Program (even if it IS VB6)
- Reimplement existing software(?)
(Not so easy to do without the source, and if he *had* it, then he could...)
- Read other people's code (which could be even harder?!)
- Talk someone in the right position at a big company into investing in it
(and as if that weren't hard enough...)
- Talk said someone into investing *a lot* of money in it!
On top of all that, if a kid that talented spent most of his teen years reading science fiction and watching movies, I'd be very disappointed to learn he didn't at least try writing a little of either. You practically have to try, when you've got that kind of initiative.
So, yeah, you can do it. You'll have to work your ass off. You'll have to keep your eyes open, and you'll probably need a boatload of patience.
Start with the beginning: "When I was 17 and a high school drop-out..."
followed by the (near) ending: "I was 22 at the time and making roughly twice what she was..."
So there's about five years in between the high school dropout and twice his mom's income stages. Success, but not what I'd call overnight. In between, we have...
and so it goes for a little more.I have to say, I leaned a little more in Max' direction when I first read it, but give it a little thought, and the real message is, don't give up hope! Getting and running your own company isn't going to be easy. You'd be crazy to think it is! BUT, if you're willing to work your ass off for it, you can get there.
Even if it takes five years.
Hell, it could take ten, or even longer, but if that's enough to stop you, it'll probably take forever, so why worry?
As for the talentless hack, you might want to look a little closer at his story, too. He might not be so talentless, himself. The guy you describe apparently knows enough to:
On top of all that, if a kid that talented spent most of his teen years reading science fiction and watching movies, I'd be very disappointed to learn he didn't at least try writing a little of either. You practically have to try, when you've got that kind of initiative.So, yeah, you can do it. You'll have to work your ass off. You'll have to keep your eyes open, and you'll probably need a boatload of patience.
But don't let that stop you.
[edited for formatting]