[StanD]

  So America invented Home Owners Associations.......

 
HOAs have also driven me to look for a new home that is far removed from one and I intend to paint it pink when I get the chance. 

Do they have any HOAs in the Kalahari-woestyn?

 

[daerron]

  Do they have any HOAs in the Kalahari-woestyn?

 
Yep, they do, but there the rules are enforced by lions and needless to say they are an even more fickle bunch. Apparently some circus lion brought back from the states learnt a trick or two over there.

 Take your buddy along just in case you present yourself as the only meal available in the area.

 

 

[bigjohn1]

  So America invented Home Owners Associations.......

 
HOAs have also driven me to look for a new home that is far removed from one and I intend to paint it pink when I get the chance. 

 
Having been on both sides of the HOA enforecement issue, I can attest to the fact that they can be annoying, but can also serve a purpose.
 
I lived in one neighborhood where someone decided that they wanted to customize a car (paint, body work, new rims, etc.).  They proceeded to sand the paint off of their car, put primer on the body, pull the wheels and brakes off - then leave the car sitting on blocks in their driveway for 28 months (no exaggeration).  It sat uncovered, in the rain, sleet snow, sun, etc. and proceeded to start leaving rust trails down the driveway from the car, into the street, and down about a block to the storm drain.  Needless to say, it was an eyesore for the whole neighborhood as it was on the street that entered the subdivision.  The HOA had a rule about leaving an auto parked in your driveway or in front of your house for more than 7 days without moving - for just such an occasion.  It finally took the HOA threatening a lien on their house for unpaid fines for this situation to get them to move the car in side the garage and out of sight.
 
However, in my current home, my HOA has sent me letters complaining that my garbage cans (nice, big, plastic cans on wheels that are issued by the city to all homeowners - so everyone has the same receptacles) were visible from the street - if you happened to drive by my house slowly and strained to look down the side of the house, and around the vine-covered trellis that was in front of them.  You could maybe see one corner of the receptacle for about a 5-6 foot distance as you drove by - so you had to be specifically looking for it. A little ridiculous, IMO.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Yeah, as I mentioned, I'm sanguine on the whole HOA thing. It's a voluntary deal, you know what you're getting into when you buy in to such a neighborhood. And, in our case (where our house backs up to a brush-covered hill), it probably kept us from having to live in a hotel for 12 months while our house was rebuilt. They do serve a purpose. But it would be much nicer if they weren't run by a bunch of picky, uptight, nervous-nellies who like to stick their noses in other people's business.
 
Again, get a ham license. If you get a nastygram or seven from the HOA, sketch up the 90' aerial you're going to put in your front yard if they don't lay off. Send it to them, together with the contact info for the FCC legal team.

 

[45longcolt]

  So America invented Home Owners Associations.......

 
HOAs have also driven me to look for a new home that is far removed from one and I intend to paint it pink when I get the chance. 

 
Then invite Bob Dylan and his Canadian buddies to live in the basement for a while...

 

[daerron]

   
Then invite Bob Dylan and his Canadian buddies to live in the basement for a while...

 
That would be a bad toss up between the HOAs recommendation of Simon & Garfunkel and "The Sounds of Silence"...
 
HOAs do have benefits, aesthetics and security in particular, but often it doesn't work because of the people involved and people's emotion getting the better of them. Few people were meant to be managers and even less as policemen. 

 

[Byronb]

  Again, get a ham license. If you get a nastygram or seven from the HOA, sketch up the 90' aerial you're going to put in your front yard if they don't lay off. Send it to them, together with the contact info for the FCC legal team.

Love this idea, I think I may just do this...LOL

 

[StanD]

  Yeah, as I mentioned, I'm sanguine on the whole HOA thing. It's a voluntary deal, you know what you're getting into when you buy in to such a neighborhood. And, in our case (where our house backs up to a brush-covered hill), it probably kept us from having to live in a hotel for 12 months while our house was rebuilt. They do serve a purpose. But it would be much nicer if they weren't run by a bunch of picky, uptight, nervous-nellies who like to stick their noses in other people's business.
 
Again, get a ham license. If you get a nastygram or seven from the HOA, sketch up the 90' aerial you're going to put in your front yard if they don't lay off. Send it to them, together with the contact info for the FCC legal team.

You might try using pink flamingos for standoffs and put an 80 meter dipole on your front yard.

 

[judmarc]

Enjoying every bit of this, both on the audio and the business sides.  So, so true about the huge list of things you're responsible for that most folks have no idea of.  I have three friends who've made reasonable successes of their own businesses, and they work like dogs.  That's a minimum, and being smart and lucky helps too.  If you're the type who's most happy when working at something, and your significant others tend to say things to you like "Can't you just sit down and relax for a couple of minutes?", you might be a candidate to go into business for yourself.  But most folks who want to be their own bosses probably shouldn't.
 
I don't know whether this was an actual figure or some BS anecdote, but I seem to remember a statistic about 4 out of 5 business startups cratering in the first 5 years.

 

[gikigill]

The actual figure is more like 97% failure rate.

 

[StanD]

  The actual figure is more like 97% failure rate.

That's not very encouraging. Is that the figure down under? What if one opens a production facility by Ayers Rock?

 

[azteca x]

http://www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by-industry/

 

[madwolfa]

I know I'd suck as a businessman. I'm a very good engineer and performer, but businessman? No thanks, no.
Somehow most people think it's a step up for anyone, but it's not. You have to have it in your blood.
 
Not everybody needs a startup to be a successful person.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

  Enjoying every bit of this, both on the audio and the business sides.  So, so true about the huge list of things you're responsible for that most folks have no idea of.  I have three friends who've made reasonable successes of their own businesses, and they work like dogs.  That's a minimum, and being smart and lucky helps too.  If you're the type who's most happy when working at something, and your significant others tend to say things to you like "Can't you just sit down and relax for a couple of minutes?", you might be a candidate to go into business for yourself.  But most folks who want to be their own bosses probably shouldn't.
 
I don't know whether this was an actual figure or some BS anecdote, but I seem to remember a statistic about 4 out of 5 business startups cratering in the first 5 years.

 
It's best to look at it as a disease or an addiction. I've started 6 businesses. 2 of them have been successful.
 
I'll probably start another business or two in the future. Because I think it's fun. Yes, it's hard work, and yes, it's something you can't forget about for an instant, but it's also the best fun in the world to me. Creating something from nothing is a wonderful feeling.
 
I actually get irritated when people say, "You have to slow down," or "You have to take a rest," or "You never have any fun, you have to get out, see things, do things, you're missing out...blah blah..." No. I don't. I love what I'm doing, and I'll keep doing it as much as I want, thank you. You're not the arbiter of how I enjoy my life, unless it impinges on your own. And I'd much rather work on a new prototype than, say, sit back and catch up on the latest episodes of whatever TV people are watching these days.
 
One rule I'll keep for any future business, though: none of them will be financed by another business, none of them will start up with "comfortable" working capital...that's a recipe for failure. Start with your own money, be hungry, be scared. That's the best motivator. Playing with other people's money (from VCs, banks, family, wherever) encourages a "screw it, ain't mine," attitude that is absolutely poisonous. If you segment the numbers for business failures between businesses started with YM (your money) or OPM (other people's money), I bet the results will be very different between the two.

 

[OddE]

  Again, get a ham license. If you get a nastygram or seven from the HOA, sketch up the 90' aerial you're going to put in your front yard if they don't lay off. Send it to them, together with the contact info for the FCC legal team.

 
-The whole concept of a HOA is rather -ahem- interesting, seen from this side of the pond. How do they come to be? (What I'm really asking, is - can you move into a non-HOA neighbourhood, only to have your up-to-no-good neighbours team up and vote to create a HOA, or may they only be organized at the time of development of the area?)
 
Anyway - being an amateur radio operator (LB1LF, for the like-minded), I occasionally visit a few US-centric ham online communities. Success stories with regards to HOA battles are, sadly, few and far between - for the most part, it appears that any semi-competent HOA can get most aerial (Well, antenna to you right-ponders) plans shut down before they even leave the drawing board.
 
If you proceed anyway, they do this:

 
(Not really; this was a local medium wave transmitter which happened to have a 232m (761ft for the metrically challenged) right next to the final approach for the local airport; didn't matter much to aviation authorities that the transmitter was there first - oh, no. They demolished it in 2011. But a HOA could be doing the same thing... I guess.)