Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
Mistakes are an inevitable part of the startup process. You can’t set out to do something that’s never been done before, and expect to get everything right. (For that matter, you can’t set out to do something that’s often been done before, and expect to get everything right!) The key to success lies in how … Continue reading Learn to savor your mistakes
I strongly urge you to read the entirety of Alex Payne’s “Letter to a Young Programmer Considering a Startup.” http://bit.ly/132Lcpc This heartfelt, eloquent essay encapsulates much of the ambivalence I feel about the startup world. I am, of course, a startup enthusiast. Sometime in the next few years, I’ll reach the point where I’ve started, … Continue reading The purpose of a startup is not “success”
Consider the cockroach: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach The cockroach has been around for over 300 million years, and has outlasted countless other species. It’s secret? It’s nearly impossible to kill: “Cockroaches are among the hardiest insects. Some species are capable of remaining active for a month without food and are able to survive on limited resources, such as … Continue reading Are you a cockroach or a sabretooth?
When you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll hear lots of suggestions. These suggestions may come from co-founders, employees, investors, customers, friends, relatives, cab drivers, and so on. One rookie mistake is to rush to follow others’ suggestions, especially when those others are rich, powerful, experienced, or all three. It’s very tempting to follow the suggestions of the … Continue reading The whole point of suggestions is that *you* choose whether to follow them
In America, we seem to believe that to be a great success, you need to be a bit of a jerk. The classic example is basketball star Michael Jordan (and his intentional clone Kobe Bryant). As a player, he was fiercely competitive to the point of getting into fistfights with his teammates during practice. He … Continue reading You can be a warrior without being a diva
You’ve probably heard the parable of “put the big rocks first”: http://bit.ly/17RwBxG The point of “big rocks” is that you need to fit the stones and pebbles in your life around the big rocks, rather than vice versa. I’d like to propose a corollary of “put the big rocks first.” I call it, “Get the … Continue reading Get the big rocks rolling
One of the most important lessons an entrepreneur needs to learn is to avoid fighting battles your startup can’t win. I like to make this point with entrepreneurs by sharing a funny story from my life. When I first met my wife (I won’t share the year, for fear of comments like, “Wow, that’s the … Continue reading Don’t fight battles you can’t win
One of the sports rumors from the weekend is that the Los Angeles Clippers are going to make a trade with the Boston Celtics to acquire their coach, Doc Rivers. Yes, that’s not a misprint. The Clippers would trade players to the Celtics in order to acquire a coach. This has actually been done before; … Continue reading Why is coaching rewarded in sports (but not in the startup world)?
My official mission statement is to “help interesting people do interesting things.” The logical corollary of that statement is that you’re interesting for what you do, not “who” you are. On some level, I think we all know this fact. Think of your childhood heroes–they are generally people who have achieved great things–astronauts and Olympic … Continue reading Be interesting for what you do, not “who” you are
One of my more quixotic quests is my ongoing habit of blogging about what the startup world can learn from the sports world. As I’ve noted before, the founders of Silicon Valley seem to take a perverse delight in their ignorance of sports, which they probably view as the purview of the jocks who gave … Continue reading Are you getting good “At Bats”?