Great advice for internet startups on how to use metrics to make REAL decisions.
Laziness in a white collar job has nothing to do with avoiding hard physical labor. “Who wants to help me move this box!” Instead, it has to do with avoiding difficult (and apparently risky) intellectual labor.
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| — | Seth Godin, “Modern Procrastination” |
Why I Think of Myself as an Inventor, Not an Entrepreneur
I rarely think of entrepreneurs as inventors, which is a shift in perception compared to just 20 years ago. I suppose it has something to do with how much innovation today comes from a semi-intangible realm - the realm of software, the internet, and information - compared to the more tangible realm of lightbulbs and bifocals. Edison and Franklin were thought of as inventors first and entrepreneurs second, if they were thought of entrepreneurs at all.
Furthermore, Society’s prototypical inventor is the person who assembled the product that ended up in the hands of customers. No one thinks of the “business” person behind the scenes who established the company, set up the team, raised the capital, etc as an inventor.
Here’s a test for you - Have you ever thought of Sam Walton, Ted Turner, or Mary Kay Ash as inventors? I didn’t think so.
Let’s change our vocabulary for a minute. Look at it this way -
Sam Walton is an inventor. He invented the big retail company.
Ted Turner is an inventor. He invented the modern media company.
Mary Kay Ash is an inventor. She invented a new kind of direct sales company.
Why is changing the language such a big deal? Because we’re more willing to accept failure as part of the inventor’s path to success than we are the entrepreneur’s.
Oh I know everyone talks about how most startups fail and you have to be willing to accept failing over and over again, but there is a huge psychological gap in the subtlety of looking at what you’re building as a new invention vs. a new business.
Edison’s famous quote which by now has become a cliche - “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - sums up how we perceive inventors. On the other hand, if Mary Kay Cosmetics hadn’t worked, would we have painted Ash as succeeding in finding one way to sell cosmetics that won’t work?
No. We would have just said she failed.
The reason this mental exercise has become important to me is because Pocket Tales hasn’t progressed as planned. Our actual path hasn’t even resembled Plan B, Plan C, or even Plan D. Additionally, the “failures” aren’t coming from likely places. It’s not that we’ve put a product out into the world and it got rejected. We haven’t gotten that far yet. If we had, it’d be easy to see the parallels between building a lightbulb that “failed” and needing to take it back to the shop and try again, or “iterate.” That type of failure is perfectly understandable and socially acceptable.
Memorable quotes from the interview:
“One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me.”
“I keep my eye out for someone who has achieved a lot, so they’ve been a great athlete or on a great team, but then something didn’t go quite right, and they’re still very hungry and want to be C.E.O. of something. I like to bet on people, especially those who have taken risks and failed in some way, because they have more real-world experience. And they’re humble.”
Great entrepreneurs are hard to work for. They jerk you around, change things up, and are always pulling the rug out from under you.
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| — | Fred Wilson in his blog post about “Action Oriented.” Read the whole article for other great insights (and quotes). |
Valley Culture has an unwritten rule that if you don’t like a job, or if you think your company isn’t going anywhere, you leave. Instead of hanging around the office whining, you walk out the door and find something better and cooler to do.
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| — | Paul Boutin in a Wired Magazine post |
About this Blog
The primary purpose of this blog is to record for prosperity the experience of starting my first company. I’m a forgetful and nostalgic person. I expect to search this blog constantly for my own advice, for quotes of inspiration, and for links to useful resources. Also, many years from now, I expect to read these posts and laugh at how much and how little has changed.
The secondary purpose of this blog is to inform and connect other early stage entrepreneurs in Indianapolis, IN. There are no shortage of people telling me that Indiana is not the place to start an emerging technology/ low-cost internet company. There is little to no capital here for pre-revenue companies and similarly, its harder to find developers and other professionals desiring to work for a startup.
