Probably Jeff Bezos is the most prominent example. He is credited as the sole founder of Amazon. Though it should be noted that he received immense support from his wife.
116 karma · joined August 13, 2017
I am a founder/CEO and got my green card through the NIW category (I have a PhD). I’d highly recommend the law firm I worked with: www.wegreened.com Don’t be misled by the fact that their website looks really bad. They handle thousands of green cards every year (NIW, EB1, O1) with a very high success rate. They do free consultations, so you have nothing to lose by contacting them!
If you have many options, start with the firms that you are less excited about to debug the pitch. Only once you are confident you got the deck and narrative right go for the top ones.
Finally, remember that your top priorities are (in that order): closing quickly, quality of the investor and valuation & control.
I have also found Peter Thiel’s book Zero To One to be full of actionable insights and recommendations.
Finally, Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup is the bible of iterating fast and finding product-market fit before you invest in a product no one wants (#1 most common way to fail).
Just my 2 cents.
(Disclaimer: we are not funded by YC)
First of all - great idea! It is never too late to learn math and physics! In fact, with hard work and commitment, anybody can muster them to a high level.
(1) Reading =/= understanding in math and physics. You understand a topic only if you can solve the problems.
(2) Work through the solved problems you encounter in textbooks carefully.
(3) Most people around me have never read any physics textbook cover to cover. E.g. reading Halliday, Resnick & Walker completely might take you years! Not all topics are equally important. Focus on the important parts.
(4) You need guidance on what is important and what is not. Online courses, college material (especially problem sets!), teaching webpages could be a helpful guide. MIT OCW is an excellent resource, once you are ready for it.
(5) Finding someone to talk to is really useful. You will likely have questions. Cultivating some relationship that allows you to ask questions is invaluable.
(4) College courses in math and physics have a very definitive order. It is really difficult to skip any step along the way. E.g. to understand special relativity, you must first understand classical physics and electrodynamics.
(5) Be prepared that the timescales in physics are long. Often, what turns people off is that they do not get things quickly (e.g. in 15-30 minutes). If you find yourself thinking hours about seemingly simple problems, do not despair! That is normal in physics.
(6) You have to 'soak in' physics. It takes time. Initially, you might feel like you do not make a lot of progress, but the more you know, the quicker it will get. Give yourself time and be patient and persistent.
(7) Often, just writing things down helps a lot with making things stick. It is a way of developing 'muscle memory'. So try and take notes while reading. Copying out solved problems from textbooks is also a good technique.
(8) Counterintuitive: If you get completely stuck, move on! Learning often happens in non-linear ways. If you hit an insurmountable roadblock, just keep going. When you return in a few days/weeks, things will almost certainly be clearer.