Re:Ask News.YC: How hard was it to learn to be a self-starter?
by jhancock on Friday October 17, 2008 @11:23PM
(#336227)
I'm 40 and still learning to be a self-finisher ;) I think this why start-ups need co-founders.
There seems to be some correlation between people who are natural self-starters having problems finishing things. I think the opposite is true as well, people who are naturally good at finishing things seem tooften have a harder time of "thinking outside the box", which is often a predicate to starting something.
So, when I say natural, do I mean you're born slanted one way or does it happen in early childhood development? My son is close to 4 now. He goes to a school with some similarities to the Montessori program (I'm in Shanghai, my son's specialty school is dramatic arts focused and tries to get him to express himself well). I have some of the same concerns about raising children as you express. I think the whole self-starter behavior is learned and can be sown at an early age. I think the "finishing things" behavior is also best to be sown in early. But school isn't the only and maybe not the best source of learning...
I'm a lifetime entrepreneur. Why? Its what I experienced...my father ran his own businesses. Every time I would see him (he didn't raise me full time) he had some business. His father was a lifetime entrepreneur. My mother's father was a highly successful lifetime self-made-businessman. I think these male role models in my childhood directed me more than any school did.
There seems to be some correlation between people who are natural self-starters having problems finishing things. I think the opposite is true as well, people who are naturally good at finishing things seem tooften have a harder time of "thinking outside the box", which is often a predicate to starting something.
So, when I say natural, do I mean you're born slanted one way or does it happen in early childhood development? My son is close to 4 now. He goes to a school with some similarities to the Montessori program (I'm in Shanghai, my son's specialty school is dramatic arts focused and tries to get him to express himself well). I have some of the same concerns about raising children as you express. I think the whole self-starter behavior is learned and can be sown at an early age. I think the "finishing things" behavior is also best to be sown in early. But school isn't the only and maybe not the best source of learning...
I'm a lifetime entrepreneur. Why? Its what I experienced...my father ran his own businesses. Every time I would see him (he didn't raise me full time) he had some business. His father was a lifetime entrepreneur. My mother's father was a highly successful lifetime self-made-businessman. I think these male role models in my childhood directed me more than any school did.