> I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building.
It's great to have ambition and follow through with a project but staying up all night, sleeping 3 hours and going to school completely tired isn't the way to do it, not healthy at all and it shouldn't be encouraged.
No reason to be sad - save your willpower for reasonable hours.
I mean, Facebook still does the all-night Hackathon, and that's once a year I believe.
Being able to make a professional-grade app at 17 is natural technical talent.
Most people at 17 can't even pass the AP test or build an application that is truly useful.
He worked hard at it. The innate aspect is that he has a natural interest and drive to make apps, and put his time into that as opposed to other things. Which I think a lot of us here can relate to. :)
> Being able to do that stuff isn't a magical attribute you're born with... > The innate aspect is that he has a natural interest and drive to make apps, and put his time into that as opposed to other things.
Sure, many people fail due to a lack of effort but pretending everyone is equally intelligent is little more than an easily perpetuated self deception.
Genetics and early development [i.e. the first few years of a child's life] play a very large role in a person's ability to achieve things by the age of 20.
"Sayman's experience is one that perhaps could only be entirely appreciated here in Silicon Valley, where entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and building something out of nothing, or rather, out of lines of code, still holds cult-like status, for good or ill. Sayman doesn’t even seem to understand the power of his story.
He got his app where it is today not with millions or even thousands in venture capital. He didn’t get it where it is with Silicon Valley connections or hookups to the magic elves who pick what’s featured in the iOS app store. He didn’t get it with a team of developers or designers or a co-founder or even an incorporated company. He didn't even get it there with natural technical talent. Instead, it took sheer force of will and a refusal to back down to any of the obstacles he faced. That, and an unholy faith in the power of Google to answer his questions."
"“I watch my son, every night and every single day, staying up until 4 or 5 am, working on the app, doing his homework, sleeping two or three hours, and then going to school,” Cristina Sayman says. "
I'm sad to say, I don't do this :( , I struggle to find that much willpower, even though I believe in what I'm building.