which in some way is a validation that it's an itme of (at least passing) interesting. Comments are closed there so you can't add to that (rather minimal) discussion, but it's interesting to see the points of view.
I like that. I think that is a good approach. However, this seems to me more of a business strategy than an answer to "what is the No. 1 thing you need to do to succeed".
One could argue that the question is somewhat pointless. And I think that, in a way, is what the article is saying. There is no number 1 thing.
I do like that business strategy that you describe though. It is not for everyone and every circumstance of course, but it is a good bet.
By making sure failure is fast and cheap I become unafraid of trying things. Each thing I try, I try to work out why it will fail. As I explore options some things really do fail fast, others are more difficult to make fail. Some simply refuse to fail, and as I push them through, they succeed.
There are corollaries.
You need to have things try, so you need ideas and the means to pursue them.
You need to be sure they'll fail - it's important to understand that I'm not giving up on things because they seem hard (although that happens too), I'm exploring hard, testing hard, stressing hard. Only when I'm convinced it simply cannot succeed (which includes being too hard to implement for the calculated return) then I turn to the next idea.
I usually use this in the context of the research division of my company, but the same has worked for me as starting a business, and for friends in other contexts.
As with all the "Silver Bullets" it takes work to make it work, and it's not suitable in all contexts. But perhaps you can try it and see if you can make it fail ...
* Do lots of stuff
* Make failure fast and cheap
Also, this was submitted 6 months ago:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1195535
which in some way is a validation that it's an itme of (at least passing) interesting. Comments are closed there so you can't add to that (rather minimal) discussion, but it's interesting to see the points of view.