Short post here guys but hopefully helpful to those of you who love to whine about Apple and their requirement for a DUNS number.
I have probably read 5 articles over the last month saying people have waited weeks or months or even just “Gave up“Â on getting a DUNS number so they could submit their apps to Apple.
As someone who has always been characterized as both resourceful and impatient I found what I suppose some will call a “hack” several years ago to get a DUNS number for free AND do so quickly (like within one business day).
So for those of you who have spent your time writing Blog Posts instead of figuring out a better way around their system here you are:
My Gift to you
“But Zach this is a form to fill out if you need a DUNS number to bid on a Federal Contract?”
Yes, it is, and you saw that job that fit your company perfectly on their website, remember? And then after you got your newly minted DUNS number for FREE and you realized maybe it was not such a good fit? Oh that’s a shame, because now you have no Government contract and just a lowly DUNS number which can be used any time it is needed for any purpose someone would need a DUNS for. I wonder how you’ll ever make use of that useless number now?
This is what you would do if you had spent your precious time and frustration doing if you had learned problem solving skills in school.
Or maybe if you had just heard of that little site called Google but either way you obviously didn’t. So here it is, put up for you served on a silver platter. And just in case you’re also a bit too lazy to click then link here’s a screenshot of the Result on google for … Wait for it … Wait for it:
Get a DUNS number fast
What a bold search that was!
You’re welcome, and good luck in business though in my opinion you’re probably better off sticking to your day job.
On the other hand if at some point in the future you have found this article via Google or DuckDuckGo etc. I commend you. Thanks for being the difference you want to see in the world!
Did this article offend you? Make you happy? Make you sad? Feel less resourceful?  You’re welcome to tell me by commenting  on Hacker News if you so desire.
Because only fools think it is that easy to find gold.
**Disclaimer … In no way am I a miner and I do not intend my statements about mining further or digging deeper to interpret true into mining**
I am writing this blog post after some reflection and a ton of chance meetings since moving to Silicon Valley a few short months ago.
I arrived back in December.
Me though, I was different from all those other people moving here on a whim. They were chasing hopes and dreams, but me, I was surely chasing destiny.
I had been accepted as part of a team into YCombinator. And that I thought had surely made me special.
I was destined for greatness. There was no way I could fail. After all who hears the bad stories that come out of YC?
That is the attitude of someone who is destined to fail.
And what makes that so hard to say is that I now know I am talking about myself.
I did not fail in most senses. Truth is I have it better than most people my age. At 25 I have never really worked a “real” job, yet I make really good money to do what I love. I play with computers, I write software and I help people. And for some odd reason people pay me to do that. It’s honestly a pretty good feeling.
So I really only failed in the sense that I thought I was different. I thought I was immune. You see when people tell you the streets are paved with gold you really WANT to believe it.
You go to great lengths to do so. Even when deep down you know it’s not true.
The truth is the streets are paved with Pyrite. It looks like gold and if you’re willing to keep digging further below it you might actually find some. but if you’re content to stop when you hit the pyrite and pretend its gold then ultimately you’ll end up the fool.
The valley is a place full of hard knocks and crazy tales. On every corner you meet the guy who is going to be the valley’s next billionaire. I think its not out of line to say I have already met one or two of those people as part of YC last cycle. But just remember for everyone heroin tale you hear about. There are probably 10,000 who came but did not conquer.
You are not immune and you are not special.
I think it is important that you hear that, and that you listen. The only thing that will separate you from everyone else that moved here with the same dreams and goals is your work ethic. And if you aren’t ready to work for it just leave now. Save yourself the time, save yourself the heart ache. This road is not easy and its damn sure not always fun, but the end is even better than all the stories they tell if you make it there.
The truth about me is I did not have enough to lose. My Aunt probably said it best last week at dinner when I made a joke about being out of work after the recent split with my company. She just looked at me and said
“Zach, you’re the wealthiest unemployed person I know.”
Sadly, that was a point I had not yet thought of. Although she probably was not kidding. The truth is I had very little to lose in coming here.
My girlfriend came with me. She was putting much more at risk than me. She left a school and friends she knew for an unknown place and an internship with a company which at the time really only existed on paper.
I was the lucky one here. I even got a fortune cookie a few weeks before I left that said this:
Now that was only a piece of paper stuffed inside of what some would call a funny shaped sugar tart, but in my case it probably was the truth.
The reality is that I’ve worked hard and earned what I have, but most of the struggle was too long ago, I don’t remember much of the suffering I went through to get here and I thought by the time I moved to the Valley I was different, I was a “Chosen One”.
The truth is no one is “Chosen” and everyone who makes it does so not by being the best at what they do but by working their asses off.
You can get to the valley in lots of ways, whether you’re accepted into YCombinator or get in on a late night greyhound only to sleep on the streets with your macbook pro.
The one thing that matters is that you know what’s in store for you.
It’s a long hard road, but it’s a damn fun ride.
Get ready for ups and downs. Get ready for twists and turns. One day you’ll be on top of the world and the next you’ll feel like the whole world is on your shoulders.
But you’ll get so much further if you just remember this one thing.
The streets … They are paved with Pyrite. Because only fools think it is that easy to find gold.