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Palmer Luckey: Starting a Company at 19 Isn't Brave. You Have Nothing to Lose.

By Palmer Luckey · Mindset & Career · 1 min read

Everyone talks about how scary it is to start a company. Luckey says it depends on where you are in life. At 19, with no family, no mortgage, no career — you have nothing. For him it wasn't a hard decision.

Key Points

The 'brave young founder' narrative is hugely overstated
No family, no mortgage, no career — the stakes are lowest when you're young
You have nowhere to go but up and nothing to waste but time

You have nowhere to go but up and nothing to waste but time.

Stop Calling Young Founders Brave

Luckey: Everyone talks about how scary it is to start a company. But it really depends on where you are in life. If you have a family, kids, a stable job — then that totally makes sense.

What I don't buy is this idea that starting a company as a recent college graduate is some kind of crazy incredible sacrifice. People say 'oh, it was so scary, I had to be so brave.' No you didn't. You don't have any family to take care of. You don't have a mortgage. You don't even have a career. You have nothing.

People say 'it was so scary, I had to be so brave.' No you didn't. You have nothing.

Minimum Wage to Oculus

Luckey: For me — I was working a minimum wage job and wasting my time. Going from that to having Oculus, it wasn't hard to make that decision. Dropping out of school, maybe — but if you can get your head past that, it's actually pretty easy.

I was working minimum wage and wasting my time. It wasn't hard to make that decision.

The Stakes Are Never Lower

Luckey: If you're going to start a company — especially for younger people — realize the stakes are lower when you're young than they will ever be.

I don't think it actually takes that much bravery when you're young to start a company. I think more people should do it and recognize that you have nowhere to go but up and nothing to waste but time. When you're working minimum wage, your time is not worth very much.

You have nowhere to go but up and nothing to waste but time.