Would love to talk about it sometime. Add me up on Skype: kareemSahmed

We are probably the same age – I was also 16 in 1996 (I am 31 now). I’ve had a bunch of failed startups / ideas in my life just like you. At one point I used to joke that I have had so many failed startups it’s a wonder how I get out of bed every morning.

Some ideas were only on paper while some had moved on to the next stages. Not only were some of our ideas very similar but also the learnings you have mentioned are on the same lines as mine – don’t startup with friends (my once-best-friend hates me now because we once attempted to start a company together); don’t leave your job till your startup starts making money (I was in my last company for five years even though I hated it on day one); boot-strap rather than borrowing; plus other learnings on what to do and what not to do.

Good to know I am not the only one riding this boat (even though it has felt an awful lot like there possibly couldn’t be anyone else).

I am currently between startups (I think) while working for a top tier business consulting firm on the side (don’t like it here either) and intend to move on to my next idea soon.

In any case, thank you for writing this (well about some 3+ years ago). I think I am going to wake up a lot more positive tomorrow morning!

At the time, it was very hard to get a good rate from a credit card company for a website, and I was looking at giving up most of my profit margin in paybacks to them.

Also the website was going to be super-cool, but was going to take a long time to build, and I had a full time job to maintain. Eventually I decided the time commitment wasn’t worth the risk, and quitting my job for this startup didn’t seem like the prudent thing to do either.

I still wonder if I could have been a Dell Jr. if I had just stuck my neck out a bit more.

There is one word to summarize this… innovation. Innovation is rapid reitteration. Trial and error. Learning from your mistakes.

One of my favorite quotes to live by (and forgive me for I cannot recall the source), “Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results each time.” Like Colin said, we commend you for cutting your losses quick. You know when something’s not working and you learn from those experiences… now only if we could all figure that out!

On another note, we’d love for you to post some of your stories on our site: http://www.weareonlyhuman.com. Its a site for just these types of lessons.

I commend you for sharing your experiences. One of my favorite quotes is “Failure is the blueprint to success.” On my new blog, I will be starting to chronicle my startup (one that has been in the works for a few months) and share it with readers that might be interested in following it in a case study style.

I’ve also posted something about embracing failure as long as you learn from it ( http://founderscafe.com/?p=22 ). I’ve enjoyed your blog tremendously and wish you nothing but the best.

http://ideas.marlincreek.com/content/view/126/1/

That’s a follow up to my comment from above.