+

Don’t work.

@AndrewKonoff

Strings.fm

Please don’t work.

Being a Canadian university student who was forced into the

world at the worst possible time, I get why you want a job.

But don’t do it. The alternative – becoming an entrepreneur – is

the only thing that will make you happy (if you’re like me).

Canadians are scared of

entrepreneurship

We’re a risk-averse country.

In university, somebody tells you what

you should…

And with this economy, I don’t blame

you for wanting stability

Forget about what we can have. Here’s

what we all deserve:

Engaging, challenging work

that produces things we care about

and which creates meaning and enough

money for us to thrive.

Thing is, bosses don’t seem to care

much about those things.

Your interests don’t matter: I couldn’t take on projects I was

passionate about without selling someone else on their value.

Only your output matters, and it’s highly unlikely that the

things you’re doing will be assigned to you simply because you

enjoy them.

Luck determines whether you’re happy or not: If you don’t

work on stuff you’re interested in, the only way to change that if

you work for someone else is to hope they offer you a different

job.

Do what you care about.

What’s an entrepreneur?

“Someone who takes significant risk to build something in the

world.” – Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter.

That covers a lot of people:

Visual artists.

Tech startup founders.

Non-profit organizers.

Event planners.

Writers.

Video game creators.

How do you become an entrepreneur?

That’s the easy part.

1. Decide what you care about doing.

2. Quit your job.

3. Do it.

Also: discover how to not starve

4. Do it better.

The trough of disillusionment is real:

But after a while, things start getting

easier.

When you take the leap, people trust that you’re going to follow

through. They give you things that the unserious don’t get:

respect, investment, opportunity.

You get better at the things that university and the working life

haven’t prepared you for.

Funding isn’t impossible.

Hiring isn’t impossible.

Getting people to like what you do isn’t impossible.

The hard parts

You are wildly free to discover what

works for you.

Paul Graham from YCombinator:

“They don’t realize how independent

they can be. When you’re a child,

your parents tell you what to do.

Then, you’re in school, and you’re

part of this institution that tells you

what to do … We have to tell them,

“We’re not your bosses. You’re in

charge now.” Some people are freaked out by that. Some

people are meant to be employees. Other people discover they

have wings and start flapping them. There’s nothing like being

thrown off a cliff to make you discover that you have wings.”

Your full-time job is being

unapologetically you.

Elle Luna, designer and painter:

“I saw the CEO of Uber, Travis

Kalanick, sitting at the bar. I

was three whiskeys deep at this

point and I walked up to him

and said, ‘I use Uber all the

time and I absolutely hate the

app. I think you should bring me

in to fix it.’ … And do you know

what he said? He said, ‘Be at

the Uber office at 9am on

Monday.’”

You are the only one responsible.

Like PG says: you’re free to figure out what works for you, but

as a result, you’re also the only one responsible for figuring that

out.

If you’re a perfectionist, this can get paralyzing.

If you don’t do well with rejection and failure, this will not be a

lot of fun.

You’ll never be able to go back to how

things were.

No one tells you when you’re

succeeding.

Don’t overanalyze. Do build.

The two pottery classes: one class

would be graded based on how many

pounds of pottery they made, and the

other class would be graded based on

a single, hopefully perfect pot.

An odd thing happened: the people who churned out the most also

had learned from their mistakes and created the most beautiful

work; the other group had sat ruminating about the meaning of

perfection, and hadn’t made anything half as good.

When someone gives you money, you

owe them.

JFD: Just Fucking Deliver.

This isn’t quite “they’re my boss,” but “I

would be starving without their having

believed in me.”

If you ever want someone to believe in

you again, make amazing shit the first

time.

It is the loneliest job in the world.

Tommy Refenes in Indie Game: The Movie:

“The things I've sacrificed are social. You kind of have to give

up something to have something great.”

The best parts

You get to sleep in

Two weeks ago, I got paid for the first

time ever.

It only took 4 months, and to get that I used every ounce of

resourcefulness and every connection I’d ever made.

I’m free.

Thanks for listening.

@AndrewKonoff

Strings.fm