How did you do it? Financial Success Thread

[lapoker17]

[ QUOTE ]
Be careful there. You know, I'm always amazed at how many huge decisions I've screwed up, and still things worked out.

[/ QUOTE ]

anyone who ever tries to do anything great has these. they are just a part of the story. and i doubt things just "worked out". it sounds like you decided you weren't just going to give up, so you just kept busting your ass until you forced things to work out. it's pretty awesome.

[El Diablo]

DC,

"The greatest lesson of my life is never look backwards. If you dwell on the mistakes of the past it will drive you crazy. Focus on what you can do in the here and now to make the future better. I'm the poster child for not dwelling on bad mistakes cause I've made a ton of them."

Wow, your catalog of mistakes looks a LOT like mine. I'll post some of them in this thread soon.

[mikechops]

[ QUOTE ]

The best advice I can offer is to really take stock of what makes you happy. For me, it's not money. I'm sure I could have gone into business or law or another well-compensated field and made tons more money than I did. But I did just fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is so true. I think the key to being happy is to learn to be content with what you have, rather than lusting after what you don't.

[mikechops]

Mid 80s

Druing my first year at Cambridge, video-games started getting big. A kid in the year below me at high school had written a game on a home computer that he sold for 10,000 quid - big money for a school-kid back then. I knew I was as smart as him so I had a go myself. I made around 50,000 before I finished my degree 2 years later.

I moved back to my home town and tried to continue to do the same. It didn't work out so well. The industry had become much more focused on licenses rather than simple game ideas. After a year I took a job with a games publisher in Manchester. To be honest, I had found working by myself fairly issolating and welcomed being in an office.

Early 90s

I had always wanted to come the US. Manchester was a cool place in the 80s but the weather... well it ain't California. Also I was in a rut where I was. I think there was a slight pay cut, but I could have cared less. As things worked out, it was a great move financially. My new boss got contracts to develop games for publishers. He received royalties based upon how well the games sold and he actually paid his developers a cut. This was a completely different culture to the UK industry, where programmers were treated like mushrooms.

The first game I wrote for him I eventually made four times my salary. It worked out better for my boss. I think he made around $1m off just that one project. After two years I was ready to strike out on my own. It would have been sooner, but it took a while before we realized how much money we could make and I didn't want to leave in the middle of a project.

94-03

I set up a development company with a couple of people from work. We figured we'd just do a couple of projects at $1m a piece and be set for life. Wrong!

I had a fairly naive idea that because what we were developing sold to the public without our name on the box, that we didn't have to worry too much about sales or presentation. The games industry is fairly close-knit and I thought I had a good enough reputation with the publishers I had dealt with, that something would just land in our laps. I ended up getting a deal with a start-up publisher. The game we made for them got great reviews, but they weren't really able to promote it properly.

After that project, it seemed as if everybody wanted to work with us. I wanted a shot at working on something that could make us $m's, but we ended up getting strung along with a lot of "Hollywood noes" ie "maybes". I blame myself for not being more decisive and giving publishers a deadline to come up with a deal, before taking something less glamorous. Again I was fairly naive.

I had lunch with my former boss. He had let his early success go to his head a bit and over-expanded. He had made some good hires early, but the talent had been diluted by people leaving to set up on their own and the later hires weren't as good. The company ended up closing. After a break, he set himself up as an agent signing deals for other developers.

It was an ideal role for him. He was always pretty crap at running development, but he was a born salesman. To be honest, when I worked for him, I hadn't really appreciated how much of a role that played in his success. I thought he had just got lucky hiring me! After doing it myself and while not exactly failing, I ended up with a lot more respect for him. He landed a great deal for us within 3 months and after a year we had sold a stake in our company to a major publisher.

We grew to around 40 employees eventually. I would have been happy to keep it smaller, but video-games just kept getting bigger. 40 people was definitely on the small side for a viable team by the time I left. My decision to retire was partly because I didn't really enjoy managing people as much as I used to enjoy developing games and partly because it was bloody hard work - though maybe if I had been better at management it would have been easier.




Looking back, I don't know that I have been that sucessful financially. I retired before 40, but - and I don't want to brag but this is true - I was bloody smart when I was a kid. I believe I would have done better if I had gone into the financial markets. However, I can relate to what Taylor was saying about enjoying Cardrunners more than grinding out a living playing high stakes. I think trading bonds would have been dull compared to developing video-games and while running a business wasn't always easy for me, I think I grew as a person.

Also, I would have made money faster if I had been smarter about running the business. I was always good at manipulating numbers and symbols, which is partly why I ended up programming, but I didn't really appreciate how much selling and management was going to be involved, as opposed to just being good at development. I got better at both with time, but I'm sure other people take to it more quickly than I did.

I guess if there's one key thing I learnt about running a business, it is that you should work out what you are good at and hire or partner with the best poeple you can to do what you are weaker at. I'm sure I read that somewhere before I started, but some things you have to experience before you really know how true they are. If you asked me on leaving college, I would have been fairly dismissive of people without my skill-set. Not so now. If anything it's the other way around. Talented programmers are 10 a penny, but show me a good salesman...

[Tien]

[ QUOTE ]
The greatest lesson of my life is never look backwards. If you dwell on the mistakes of the past it will drive you crazy. Focus on what you can do in the here and now to make the future better. I'm the poster child for not dwelling on bad mistakes cause I've made a ton of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great story.

That quote right there is truly worth it's weight in gold.

[Lurker.]

i'm interested in ElDiablo's and lapoker's stories. i unfortuanatly have nothing worthy of this thread.

[raptor517]

pj,

awesome story, made me feel good reading it [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Emperor]

Great thread. Great stories. Really appreciative that people included their failures as well.

I have been dealt some awesome opportunities in my life, and so far each one has been followed by some catastrophic stupidity that kept the opportunity from developing to fruition. So hearing the bad along with the good is inspiring. Thank You.

[InfectorGadget]

[ QUOTE ]
i'm interested in ElDiablo's and lapoker's stories. i unfortuanatly have nothing worthy of this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Do Not Reply]

[ QUOTE ]
but i hope op just made a mistake and meant for his displeasure to apply only when he is buying something? b/c i love having someone on commission working/selling FOR me - it's awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]My objection is that you (as buyer or seller) are making the commission-recipient a partner in the transaction without him providing capital or assuming any risk. Finding yourself in this kind of deal is prima facie evidence of an inefficient market (if not an outright cartel).

There are exceptions, notably when the salesperson's role and discretion are narrowly defined; e.g., a waitress making modest wage plus tips is a commission scheme that works for everyone.

But often, the buyer's and seller's interests are aligned more closely to each other than either of them are to the guy on commission. So if they can figure out a way to transact without that guy, they both win.