My startup failed, but I’d do it again, and again, and again.

Earlier this morning Michael Seibel published a post on Y Combinator blog entitled “Why Should I Start a Startup,” explaining that in a nut shell, being a startup founder is the opposite of holding a job, and requires working hard and staying optimistic in light of nearly certain failure, while battling complete uncertainly and not really getting paid much.

That immediately triggered the most upvoted Hacker News comment to say that Michael’s post is nothing but a promotion for Y Combinator, and that he’s essentially pushing young and unaware to take a gamble, all for the sake of making YC rich.

Bull shit. Excuse the language, but let me tell you why.

Startups are not for everyone. It’s a complete shitshow. You are most likely to fail. Everything in the world will be against you. Your customers will leave. Your employees will quit. You investors will check out. You are not going to feel good. It’s unpredictable and full off things you would not anticipate. You might even go insane.

As a young person though, if you are smart and driven and love to work, but the security and frankly mind-numbing boredom of a full-time job doesn’t appeal to you, startups is the best thing you could do.

There is a certain type of person who only works at their peak capacity when there is no predictable path to follow. — Michael Seibel.

Does that sound like you? Sure resonated with me.

Look, sure, my first startup (Scoutzie) failed, and I am not particularly happy about it, but it happened. What’s done is done and we can’t bring it back.

As we were doing it though, we learned a whole lot about the world, design, technology, and people, you name it. We made friends, we helped a bunch of people to make money and find jobs, we helped a ton of customers to create awesome apps, and we certainly made a ton of mistakes, which all taught us valuable lessons to be used in the future.

Where else are you going to learn about everything? If you take a job and go work for the man, you will learn something about something, you will learn a little bit to do you job today, and you might learn a little bit more to do you job tomorrow, and maybe even a little bit more to take over your boss’s job when the time comes, but that’s about it. At a large company nobody needs you to learn and grow, they just need you to do the job that you are paid to do today.

At startup, you’re challenged to do your job today, plus 10 other jobs you should be doing today, plus all the jobs you are going to hire for tomorrow. You are constantly on the edge, there is never enough time, and learning what to do, and what not to do, is part of the process.

In fact, if you learn nothing more, you will learn how to connect the dots and to see patterns, you will be able to clearly see and articulate where you are going and what steps are require to get there.

You will gain an edge.

Even if your startup doesn’t work out, even if you will eventually end up doing something else, this is a chance to do something boundless, a job that is as challenging as you are willing to make it.

You know one of the best parts about making it on your own? You don’t have to ask for anyone’s permission.

Don’t listen to the nay-sayers. It is easy to troll and to explain why doing something hard is not for you, not right now. Doing something is what will actually set you apart from the rest.

Go out there and take on a challenge!

+K.