This was written by a VC who has no track record as an operator or founder.
The only consistent advice I have ever gotten from the most financially successful people I know (many worth >$100MM) has been to never give up. Some of them took decades to get to even moderate success.
The last decade has been an illusion of how quickly you can get rich starting a company. It can take years to see payoff and it is not always obvious.
Well, yes, but let's bear in mind that there's a big confirmation bias there. Were these hundredaires more or less willing to give up than your ordinary founder who ends up with nothing after a few years to a decade at the wheel of a zombie company? Have they never given up on anything at all?
Extraordinary people can fail and regular people can make a lot of dough. I've met with a few billionaires myself and I have to say I didn't find them to be a different class of human. Just luckyer, from good families and with a very good sense of timing. Obviously very good at what they do. But fundamentally not that different from you and I.
I am not by any means calling it an absolute. But the data points tilt in favor of working through the pain and difficulties instead of throwing in the towel at the slightest speed bump.
Consider another point of view then: how many people struck it big on their second, third, fourth startup?
Off the top of my head Uber was Travis' third startup. Does that make him a quitter or a perseverer?
At my age I known plenty of tech entrepreneurs who've been at it for 10 years with no big hits. Statistically some of them will eventually make it. I doubt I'll be able to say sincerely they were the ones with more grit. But I'm sure they themselves will say it for me :)
"never give up" coming from people who succeeded after decades of work.
It's obvious that a prerequisite for success is not giving up, but what about the people who didn't give up for decades and have nothing to show for it? I suppose they don't exist.
> Some of them took decades to get to even moderate success.
1. Was it worth it? I have moderate success, and I'm still making less than I would if employed.
2. Wouldn't it be faster if you did it with another idea/team? Pivots do some of that, but sometimes it's a structural problem.
Not to mention that many entrepreneurs try it when they're young and just plain don't have the experience necessary. Not sure what would be a good education on that, other than keep burning other people's money for 2-3-5 times.
The only consistent advice I have ever gotten from the most financially successful people I know (many worth >$100MM) has been to never give up. Some of them took decades to get to even moderate success.
The last decade has been an illusion of how quickly you can get rich starting a company. It can take years to see payoff and it is not always obvious.