Fear of Failure

[Bryteknic]

Hey, I am new here, and I thought I would share an issue I am facing.

I am at a crossroads in my life, and I figure the choices I make now will greatly affect my success in the future. I know failure is a part of learning, but I am afraid I will make the wrong choice on what to do next and miss out on something big.

I am a senior in high school while working 20 hours per week in the robotics industry. In my spare time I compete in robotics competitions and repair and resell consumer electronics among other hobbies.

Many possibilities exist for post graduation, but these are some likely options:

- Work full time for the company I work for currently. (40+ hours per week). They have asked I work for them this summer, and wish to hire me long term.

- Quit my job and take a gap year to work for myself and develop my repair business. (It’s not very scalable)

- Go to uni/college (nooo!!!!) to meet people and return to my job after the fact with a significantly higher salary.

- Keep working part time and work on the repair business or another business on the side.

A bit more about myself: I also have been saving for a mortgage and am ready to go in on an apartment but I’m in Canada and housing market is probably a bad idea right now (please give advice). I could use the capital for other stuff like a business.

I kinda dislike my job, it makes me not want to get up in the morning. The reason is mostly people telling me to do stuff that I don’t want to do. I like switching tasks frequently which poses problems when trying to be monogamous with a task or goal or what have you.

I am motivated by the future and what it holds. I want to make the world a place worth living in for future generations. (I also really like robots).

I want to make an impact/the right decision, but am afraid to fail, am too self conscious, and I don’t know what I don’t know.

Sorry for the self centered rant but I am actually confused on what choice to make here going forward. Parents obviously want more school for me, rich uncle wants me to real estate cuz that’s how he did it back in his day, I just want to build expensive robots, and my friends just wanna party.

Any advice is appreciated, have a nice day

 

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[SpinnerRedPenny]

I kinda dislike my job, it makes me not want to get up in the morning. The reason is mostly people telling me to do stuff that I don’t want to do.

This won't necessarily change when you're on your own running a show. The difference is it will be the customers telling you to do stuff; you may or may not be in a position to disregard your customers.

There's also a decent chance that you'll dislike being broke even more than disliking your job.

That said, if you enjoy the theoretical aspects of robotics as much as the practical aspects, university would be a good path. Is there any chance of attending university to study engineering (electrical or mechanical if not robotics) or physics while continuing at your current job part-time? [I recommend taking a handful of business courses as electives if possible]. University will not only help you build a network, but may open you up to other realms of knowledge that touch robotics that could help you in that field. It will also go a long way toward bringing to light things you don't know you don't know and teach you how to figure out how you can learn them.

Godspeed!

 

[Bryteknic]

This won't necessarily change when you're on your own running a show. The difference is it will be the customers telling you to do stuff; you may or may not be in a position to disregard your customers.

There's also a decent chance that you'll dislike being broke even more than disliking your job.

That said, if you enjoy the theoretical aspects of robotics as much as the practical aspects, university would be a good path. Is there any chance of attending university to study engineering (electrical or mechanical if not robotics) or physics while continuing at your current job part-time? [I recommend taking a handful of business courses as electives if possible]. University will not only help you build a network, but may open you up to other realms of knowledge that touch robotics that could help you in that field. It will also go a long way toward bringing to light things you don't know you don't know and teach you how to figure out how you can learn them.

Godspeed!

Thanks for pointing out that it might be the same when running my own business!

I do have the opportunity to take a community college engineering course that bridges into a university degree, while also working at the same time. I will explore the opportunity more to see how much it will cost.

 

[Kevin88660]

Hey, I am new here, and I thought I would share an issue I am facing.

I am at a crossroads in my life, and I figure the choices I make now will greatly affect my success in the future. I know failure is a part of learning, but I am afraid I will make the wrong choice on what to do next and miss out on something big.

I am a senior in high school while working 20 hours per week in the robotics industry. In my spare time I compete in robotics competitions and repair and resell consumer electronics among other hobbies.

Many possibilities exist for post graduation, but these are some likely options:

- Work full time for the company I work for currently. (40+ hours per week). They have asked I work for them this summer, and wish to hire me long term.

- Quit my job and take a gap year to work for myself and develop my repair business. (It’s not very scalable)

- Go to uni/college (nooo!!!!) to meet people and return to my job after the fact with a significantly higher salary.

- Keep working part time and work on the repair business or another business on the side.

A bit more about myself: I also have been saving for a mortgage and am ready to go in on an apartment but I’m in Canada and housing market is probably a bad idea right now (please give advice). I could use the capital for other stuff like a business.

I kinda dislike my job, it makes me not want to get up in the morning. The reason is mostly people telling me to do stuff that I don’t want to do. I like switching tasks frequently which poses problems when trying to be monogamous with a task or goal or what have you.

I am motivated by the future and what it holds. I want to make the world a place worth living in for future generations. (I also really like robots).

I want to make an impact/the right decision, but am afraid to fail, am too self conscious, and I don’t know what I don’t know.

Sorry for the self centered rant but I am actually confused on what choice to make here going forward. Parents obviously want more school for me, rich uncle wants me to real estate cuz that’s how he did it back in his day, I just want to build expensive robots, and my friends just wanna party.

Any advice is appreciated, have a nice day

It depends on how serious you are in your consumer electronic repair business.

You can project the growth rate of your business and look at where you will be ten years later, assuming you hustle 6 days a week.

Then you will have figures to compare versus working for the robotic company directly.

The third path is working for the robotic company after university. Higher wages but you need to pay tuition fee and no income during your course of study.

You get a clearer picture, that after ten years which way is better.

But as I am typing I suddenly saw the fourth option that “your rich uncle wants you to do real estate”.

It becomes clear that the first 3 are redundant now. I assume he wants in join his business and possible see you as at least a partial future successor.

 

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[Johnny boy]

Parents obviously want more school for me, rich uncle wants me to real estate cuz that’s how he did it back in his day, I just want to build expensive robots, and my friends just wanna party.

Build expensive robots as your badass business
-Then
Use profits for real estate investments
-Then
Party