

Impatience Kills Startups - chrisyeh
http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2010/12/impatience-kills-startups.html

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bradhe
Good post but i think a lot of this i caused by HN.

"Get out there and sell something now!"

"Look what wicked awesome thing I made in a weekend ( _weekend wink wink nudge
nudge_ )!"

"Make sure you know when to pivot/give up!"

"With adwords yo can validate a market/channel/idea in just a couple days!"

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chrisyeh
Ha, you're very observant.

I love HN; it's one of my main sources of information. But there is an
incredible sense of impatience created by all these stories of rapid success.

Overnight success is the exception, not the rule.

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kadavy
I find the impatience of many entrepreneurs to be disturbing and confusing.
Many seem to expect to build something and cash out within a few years. But
creating something so quickly worthy of sale is extremely hard work. How could
you work so hard on something unless you loved it? If you loved it so much,
why would you want to sell it?

I think there is currently a unique opportunities for entrepreneurs to create
businesses that utilize their most prized passions, experiences, and
relationships; and that keep them busy and fed for their entire lives.

Life is long. What's wrong with something great taking 10 years to build? Or
20. Look at long it has taken Apple to hit their stride! But, the only way to
achieve such endurance is to follow what you love.

At the same time, life is short. Why waste one moment doing something you
don't love?

~~~
gaustin
> At the same time, life is short. Why waste one moment doing something you
> don't love?

Bills/debt (student loan payments, in my case). Fear.

Neither is a good reason. But they are both excuses many of us use.

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swombat
That's nice, but at the same time, while an investor can wait 20 years for a
startup they've invested in to succeed, is it reasonable to expect a human
being to invest 20 years into a startup that doesn't look like it's
succeeding?

~~~
chrisyeh
The trick lies in being able to tell when something will never work. Sometimes
the light at the end of a tunnel is an oncoming train. And no amount of
patience will help a buggy-whip company when Henry Ford comes knocking.

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tjmc
"Startup" itself is an impatient word compared to "business". I prefer the
term's inherent ambition over "small business", but I think there's an implied
assumption that "startups" either win big or flame out, so you have to get
traction in your market quickly.

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scrrr
Again one of these posts where the author doesn't have/write about own
experience to back up his claims. (Example: "Most successful startups had a
long gestation period" - proof? citation? something?) He doesn't even write
his full name in his profile. But on the other hand his About-page says he's a
Marketer. So the point of this article might not necessarily be the contents.

~~~
chrisyeh
I should probably put my CrunchBase profile as a link on my blog. As you can
tell, I haven't redesigned it since 2001.

<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-yeh>

I have personal experience with the PBworks story as both their first investor
and their VP Marketing!

~~~
scrrr
Ah yes. :) Yes, put the CrunchBase Profile up! Thanks for clarifying.

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aberman
I wouldn't complain if this was reposted once every six months.

Thanks for the reminder :)

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guynamedloren
Chris, would you mind sharing the name of the friend's blogging network?

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chrisyeh
I'll check with him. He likes to keep a low profile. Otherwise I'm sure he
could get a front page post by writing, "How I Built A $1 Million/Year Blog
Network With $0 Funding."

~~~
guynamedloren
Thanks. I'd love to hear more about this.

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joshrule
The point is well-illustrated, but not at all new. Jim Collins's book _Good to
Great_ dedicates an entire chapter to what he calls the _flywheel effect_.
Consistent effort applied over a long period of time with a consistent vision
can generate massive results. But, I doubt the concept was new with him,
either.

By the way, if you haven't read _Good to Great_ , I highly recommend it.
Although based on large, slow-moving businesses, the general points Collins
and his team extract are easily applicable to just about any significant
project.

~~~
chrisyeh
Long, long ago, when I was a Stanford undergrad, Jim Collins spoke in one of
my classes. At the time, no one had ever heard of him. But he had a huge
impact on me. As soon as I got back to my dorm room, I printed up a big sign
reading "BHAG" and taped it above my desk!

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taphangum
We live in a different world now, a world that moves VERY fast. In a world
like this, IMpatience is a virtue. It's the only way your gonna keep up!

This may be a terrible illustration of my point but let's have a look:

Entrepreneurs time to a $1bn net worth.

Steve Jobs - 20 years?

Mark Zuckerberg - 3 years.

Andrew Mason - 1 year! (maybe 1 and a half)

~~~
code_duck
Apple was undoubtedly a huge success long before then. Every school in the
country had Apple IIes in the 1980s.

I think you need to accounting for inflation and the growth of the electronics
market in general.

~~~
chrisyeh
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1, 1976. Apple went
public in December of 1980, roughly 3.5 years later, in the most successful
IPO since the Ford Motor Company.

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catechu
That said, impatience also prevents feature creep.

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nhangen
patience or impatience? Seems to me that being patient would lead to less
change, less creep.

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donaq
Impatience to launch leads to less feature creep.

~~~
nickgeiger
Seems like he's talking more about patience to stick with your business
through "the dip" even if it's not an overnight success rather than patience
to first launch. Launch away and iterate, but be patient if it's not an
overnight success when you first launch it. It's a good message. Along these
lines, I always like to remember that most overnight success stories were 3+
years in the making before the "overnight" success.

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BerislavLopac
Never forget the old adage: Overnight success takes years.

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jister
impatience kills just about everything...

