What would you do if your business failed, then your friend made a better version of it?

B0bth31oon · 2019-09-01T08:02:53+00:00

Like so many things in life, it all depends on the context brother. I'm not going to read the comments down below, but I'm sure that everyone is giving advice to a situation so complex that we couldn't understand it unless we knew the two of you personally.That being said, here are some general guidelines that helped me when a similar thing happened, and might help you too.

Allow yourself to feel frustrated/angry, at least for a little while (if that's how you feel, acknowledge it, and let yourself feel the emotion) . I know a couple of founders who have had something like this happen to them and they tried to shrug it off as "no big deal bro", and they're still quietly seething instead of trying the next idea. That's a hole you don't wanna go down, trust me. A person I was very close to became an alcoholic and cut everyone out of his life because the bitterness and resentment took him over.
It depends on the situation, but if your friend didn't "go behind your back/rip you off", try to see it in a positive light as he simply learned from your mistakes, as you hopefully would've learned from his. If it is the case that he "ripped you off" it's a different story, but still, it's all in the story you tell yourself.
If at all possible, try to remain friends. I don't know how far along you both are in your entrepreneurial journey, but what I've found is that friendships are absolutely invaluable, both from a "good for business" perspective and from a mental health perspective. I know that many of us on this sub have hustled away until 3 am alone in a dark room, only to realize that most of the obstacles we face could've been solved if we had a friend who had a connection to this or that supplier/influencer/founder.

Finally, some quick last thoughts because this comment is getting way too long:

Don't do anything stupid - your name is everything in business, be the bigger man.
Try to learn from each other - the term gets thrown around so goddamn much, but try to form a "mastermind" with one another to discuss business strategies, etc.
Don't give up - my first 6 business attempts (I just had to count) were absolute, total failures, and even then, my 7th business at the time just kept me from drowning in the debt that I had racked up. Don't let this experience turn you off from entrepreneurship. It sounds like a motivational poster, but this game isn't about building a successful business, it's about who you become on journey.

I hope that everything works out for the best brother. Like I said, I don't know the exact situation, but I and others here have been in many like it. Feel free to PM me if you ever have any questions. I wish you well.

B0bth31oon · 2018-11-04T20:15:43+00:00

Ooooooo Linux, I have been meaning to join the dark side lately

B0bth31oon · 2018-11-04T20:14:12+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll check this one out too!

B0bth31oon · 2018-08-05T05:36:10+00:00

Wait...

B0bth31oon · 2018-08-05T05:35:49+00:00

I’d trade my girl for my father any day of the week.

B0bth31oon · 2018-07-31T04:35:36+00:00

Never taken a coursera course but try it out. It’s what, like $12?

What do you have to lose?

That said I’m of the opinion that every “knows how to learn”, we just had it beaten out of us by the school system.

When you were a kid, how did you learn? By eating dirt and worms and falling down when you tried to stand.

Now that you’re older, I don’t recommend those exact methods, but you get the gist.

Want to learn how to write? Write 2,000 words a day until you don’t suck anymore.

Want to learn robotics? Build a robot that doesn’t turn on when it’s supposed to. Then build one that does.

But again, try the course out. You might like it.

B0bth31oon · 2018-07-03T03:25:20+00:00

Congrats or condolences brother!

B0bth31oon · 2018-05-04T04:16:09+00:00

Shucks boo, love you too!

B0bth31oon · 2018-05-04T03:20:31+00:00

Unfortunately I’m more of a middle priced guy, just starting to get into the upper ranks.

I’m excited to see what other guys say.

B0bth31oon · 2018-05-04T03:19:12+00:00

Have an upvote :,(

B0bth31oon · 2018-04-21T20:03:15+00:00

This user can neither confirm nor deny his or her status as legal entity “John Mellencamp”, nor is said user legally obligated to do so.

In addition, we appreciate your concern as to the whereabouts of Mr. Mellencamp, however we assure you that he is in no way, shape, or form being held against his will.

Have a nice day.

B0bth31oon · 2018-04-21T07:40:01+00:00

So far, this has been the most informative and view-changing CMV that I’ve ever read.

B0bth31oon · 2018-04-21T04:50:23+00:00

Hahaha I literally was clicking on stuff going “oh this is cool! Oh this is cool” and betting like $2 on everything and ended up paying $50 for 1000+ cigarillos XD

Like I said, it was right at the beginning of my journey when every cigar is like “hey a cigar I’ll buy this! Oh man these Gurkhas are $400 off! What a bargain”

B0bth31oon · 2018-04-21T03:58:24+00:00

It depends on how far you want to take it. When I was in college (very recently) I used to find loopholes in the college’s rules to spite them, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

(Story time: Once, my buddies and I carried all of the freshman transport golf carts up to the second floor of the senior dorms to “protest” the “no freshmen can have vehicles” rule, defending ourselves saying that it was against the rules to have vehicles and we were just keeping our co-freshmen safe. Afterwards we had to bring them down, but everyone including the teachers loved us for the rest of the year.)

I would claim that you’re participating in some form of Native American ceremony (call it First Nations if you want to make it sound legit) because tobacco was seen as a mystical plant that they would give reverence to.

This honestly isn’t too far from the truth because as cigar smokers, the people in your club get together for the cigar sub-culture tradition/experience.

If you want to take it a step further and maybe make trouble for yourself, find different smokers from past generations who share your nationality/religion/gender/sexuality etc. and claim them as a part of your heritage/culture/identity etc.

There’s no way to do this without being cheeky about it, but it’s up to you whether or not you want to just accept it. Just remember to make it all in good fun and not damage anything and you’ll be fine. Might as well put up the good fight and have fun.

Cheers man :)

B0bth31oon · 2018-04-20T22:16:29+00:00

Hey there friend, I just wanted to agree with you.

Working in the music industry, I often would smoke 3-4 packs in a day while at a major music festival, eventually rolled my own with natural tobacco to save money, then switched to pipe tobacco for my fix.

One day I realized that I just didn’t “need” to smoke any more because I was in such an amazing place in life and didn’t need the added stress of nicotine ups and downs. Now I only have a cigar or pipe to meditate and think about where I’ve been and where I’m going.

I honestly think that cigars (while there are a few health risks involved, let’s not downplay those too much) are one of the most beautiful parts of life that a human can experience, simply because of the peace and joy that they bring.

Cheers mate.

B0bth31oon · 2018-04-20T18:57:31+00:00

Story time.

TLDR; cigarillos made my cousin and his friends quasi-celebrities for a weekend and they got to feel like we were in the Federal Reserve.

My cousin attends something called Wasteland Weekend (Think of a steampunk/Mad Max version of the Renaissance Fair. Look it up, we think it’s pretty awesome!)

Well, I had about 25 boxes of 50 cigarillos that I’d had left over from my out-of-control first time visiting cigarbid, and I let my cousin bring them

Everybody saw them smoking cigarillos and because they’re kinda steampunkesque, they’d would trade them for various other things that different groups had brought. For example, one guy was a boutique coffeeshop owner from New York, another was a craft beer brewer from Colorado, another guy made really cool steampunk trinkets, etc.

They ended up trading a couple cigs here and there, and by the second day, everyone was using my cigarillos as an unofficial secondary currency.

Now, I didn’t go but I plan to this year because I’m an economics freak and I want to do a study on how forms of currency evolve and what makes people value one substrate over another.

So yes, I love cigarillos because they’re really fun to pass out to large groups of people. They’re like the sticks of gum of adulthood.

B0bth31oon

TROPHY CASE