Practice Makes Perfect
I am currently reading “On Fire“, the memoir of a writer and his life as a fireman.

In it, Larry Brown writes of many things, but a common thread is his story of how he became a writer.

Brown didn’t go to a creative writing program, or attend workshops.

He wrote. Lots.

He spent years and years writing. Several novels. A hundred short stories. Each and every one of them rejected. But he kept at it, because he thought, “If I just do this enough, maybe I’ll get good at it.”

And really, that’s how any creative endeavor works. Do it, and keep on doing it. Learn from your mistakes and grow.

Sometimes, I hear folks making fun of entrepreneurs who weren’t able to match their first success. Marc Andreessen. Sameer Bhatia. The bottom line is that starting companies is hard. The guys who successfully do it over and over again are pretty damn remarkable.

But for those of us who aren’t that smart and/or lucky, the key to success is to keep trying and learning.