Bob Parsons, GoDaddy's founder, shares business advice, his 16 rules for success, and stories about building the company.
HN commenters link it for his 16 rules and GoDaddy history, and consider his founder story worth reading for startup founders.
GoDaddy's service is non-exceptional, their Web UI is clearly focused more on up-sales than on helping customers get work done, their [advertisements are sexist][1], their [attempts to police the Internet][2] are an affront to free speech, they [lobbied for the horrible SOPA until it appeared likely that continuing to do so would hurt their bottom line][3], and their [founder/former-CEO][4] is a hyperaggressive douchebag who [kills elephants for fun][5].
References:
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoDaddy.com#Marketing (Wikipedia: GoDaddy.com: Marketing)
[2]: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/01/godaddy_defends/ ("GoDaddy Defends SecLists Takedown," Kevin Poulsen, January 25, 2007, Threat Level)
[3]: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57349913-281/godaddy-bows-to-boycott-now-opposes-sopa-copyright-bill/ ("GoDaddy bows to boycott, now 'opposes' SOPA copyright bill," Declan McCullagh, December 29, 2011, CNET News)
[4]: http://www.bobparsons.me (Bob Parsons)
[5]: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/daddy-ceo-bob-parsons-africa-elephant-hunt-video/story?id=13279206#.UE5SZiNH92M ("Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons: Africa Elephant Hunt Video 'Nothing to Be Ashamed Of'," Susanna Kim and Michael S. James, April 2, 2011, ABC News)
That depends on what 'hard' means; it's hard to take the step, not to actually do it. People are very scared and security seeking. I don't like the ex CEO of godaddy much, but 'security is for corpses' is definitely something he was right about. When you are born, you are almost dead. There is no reason to be so careful; I mean, don't drunk-drive or inject yourself with random stuff to get a maybe-high, but doing only stuff you like? Whats the harm in that? You're going to die if there is a mistake? No, you'll have a maybe temporary hard time. At least you did what you like. It's incredible what small amount of people actually do this. Most people agree with this though but they don't do because of BUNCH_OF_SECURITY_EXCUSES.
Edit: I seem to have remembered the phrase from Bob Parsons incorrectly. It's "Security is for cadavers." (http://www.bobparsons.me/bp_16_rules.php). I hoped that it actually was from someone else :)
Never give up and never surrender. The difference between failure and profitability can be as small as changing a few paragraphs on your sales page (it was in my case).
Reduce your costs, and experiment as much as possible.
The worst that can happen is you end up getting a day job.
Bob Parsons (found of GoDaddy) has some pretty good advice in this area: http://www.bobparsons.me/SuccesskeyNevergiveupbutbeveryquicktochangeTurning15000into64millionKissing64milliongoodbye.html
Is Bob Parsons (the elephant hunting guy) still CEO of GoDaddy, like OP's link suggests?
The guy's homepage says he's "only" executive chairman ([1]) but Wikipedia says he stepped down as CEO in 2011, citing this interview [2].
[1] http://www.bobparsons.me/index.php
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/bob-parsons.html?_r=0
Congratulations to Bob Parsons. For those of you who don't know, he started as a relatively scrappy entrepreneur; glad to see what appears to be a great outcome for him here.
If you're the founder of a startup, this is worth a few minutes of your time to read:
http://www.bobparsons.me/bp_16_rules.php?ci=21428
Even if it is the Wallstreet Journal, you better directly visit the source: http://www.bobparsons.me/bp_16_rules.php?ci=21428
WSJ picked 10 of those 16 rules to make a fancy "top 10 list". Bah!