Comments on: Working alone: my big mistake http://greatnotbig.com/2011/06/working-alone-my-big-mistake/ On Building and Running a Software Development Company Tue, 21 May 2013 00:18:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Failed experiments aren't mistakes, they're part of a strategy | Great Not Big http://greatnotbig.com/2011/06/working-alone-my-big-mistake/#comment-137 Failed experiments aren't mistakes, they're part of a strategy | Great Not Big Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:03:27 +0000 http://greatnotbig.com/?p=408#comment-137 [...] obviously none of them were fatal. For example, not getting help in my job sooner was one of the bigger mistakes I made. Seeing many small mistakes as evidence of a smart strategy is something I’ve only [...]

]]> By: How Great Not Big got its name | Great Not Big http://greatnotbig.com/2011/06/working-alone-my-big-mistake/#comment-108 How Great Not Big got its name | Great Not Big Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:27:58 +0000 http://greatnotbig.com/?p=408#comment-108 [...] concern about growth, what my goals were, and where Atomic was headed. I was just starting to feel the pain of working solo, being irreplaceable on nearly all non-technical responsibilities. It was time to [...]

]]> By: Matt http://greatnotbig.com/2011/06/working-alone-my-big-mistake/#comment-53 Matt Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:49:00 +0000 http://greatnotbig.com/?p=408#comment-53 “Many of the efforts I’ve tried went nowhere, got no traction, fizzled out, weren’t effective, wasted time or money, or were actually counter-productive. In hindsight, it’s a bummer to think about all the waste.”

This reminds me of a discussion I’ve been hearing frequently on the economics podcasts lately. Tim Harford recently published the book Adapt (http://timharford.com/books/adapt/) which discusses how failure leads to success. A society like ours that largely accepts failure and allows people to pick up and try again has led to an immense amount of prosperity. His discussion isn’t directly related to what I quoted from you, but it is reminiscent and made me think you may enjoy Tim’s observations. Might be good a read when traveling.

The book: http://timharford.com/books/adapt/
Podcast: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/06/06/136931516/the-friday-podcast-the-failure-tour-of-new-york
More in-depth podcast: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/05/harford_on_adap.html

]]> By: Carl Erickson http://greatnotbig.com/2011/06/working-alone-my-big-mistake/#comment-51 Carl Erickson Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:46:00 +0000 http://greatnotbig.com/?p=408#comment-51 It was only in hindsight, after experiencing how much nicer it is and how much better the outcomes are from working in a team, that I could say it was a mistake. Outcomes-wise there was never anything bad enough to force the realization. Stress- and happiness-wise it was the case of a boiled frog.

Having the founder role definitely made me feel a huge sense of obligation and responsibility and no doubt kept me at it when it was hard and I could really have used help. But it didn’t prevent me from looking for and appreciating help and the team approach.

I think it took a while because AO’s culture is such that this role can only be served by someone who has been a designer or a developer at AO, in other words, an internal “hire” for the upfront team. It took some time for those people to earn the opportunity, identify their interest, make the choice, and be accepted by the company.

]]> By: Phil http://greatnotbig.com/2011/06/working-alone-my-big-mistake/#comment-50 Phil Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:49:00 +0000 http://greatnotbig.com/?p=408#comment-50 So what triggered the change and the realisation it was a ‘mistake’ ? Was it a flash of inspiration, some event, gradual realisation, someone pointing it out ?

Do you think having the role of ‘president’ and it being ‘your’ company made you think that you had to act that way and not let others help out ?

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