Horn
11th November 2013, 05:17 PM
In the famous story of Don Quixote, the man of La Mancha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote) goes on a quest to have a grand, chivalrous adventure like he's read in books. Unfortunately for Quixote, he creates more trouble than adventure as his distorted view of reality has him mistaking common day things for grand challenges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilting_at_windmills). He is most known for fighting windmills he thought were giants.
Fast forward to today, as entrepreneurs, we are all chasing the elusive, odds-defying startup success. In this quest, we are always looking for the secret to success. We often look for magical solutions and silver bullets that will solve our greatest problems in the form of blog posts, books and successful founder talks. While there are great nuggets of wisdom to be gathered from them, we have to be careful not to take them too literally (as Quixote did the chivalry stories).
Startups are more variables than known solutions. And like Don Quixote's chivalrous novels he tried to emulate, there is a separation between what is written and reality. What works for one person is unlikely to work for others as our ability to properly associate cause and effect for success is often questionable. For example, despite the current love-fest after his departure, there's only one Steve Jobs; there is much we don't know about how he really ran Apple, and so it would be very dangerous to go too far in emulating what we do know about him and how he ran his company.
We all have to pay our dues and we're going to learn much more in our own endeavors than any blog post or nugget of wisdom. The latter have their place, but most success is a symphony; many things have to come together at the right time and work smoothly in unison to ensure success. Looking back or even reflecting at the time, you're unlikely to get a full picture of the person you're hoping to emulate. Make your own music and realize that you can only be you and the only real silver bullet is a never ending quest for self-improvement and learning. Take from the best of what you hear about others that are successful, but never confuse it with success coming from directly emulating your favorite startup's stories or you may find yourself chasing windmills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quixotism) like Don Quixote.
http://www.greenhornconnect.com/blog/don-quixote-and-quest-startup-silver-bullet
Fast forward to today, as entrepreneurs, we are all chasing the elusive, odds-defying startup success. In this quest, we are always looking for the secret to success. We often look for magical solutions and silver bullets that will solve our greatest problems in the form of blog posts, books and successful founder talks. While there are great nuggets of wisdom to be gathered from them, we have to be careful not to take them too literally (as Quixote did the chivalry stories).
Startups are more variables than known solutions. And like Don Quixote's chivalrous novels he tried to emulate, there is a separation between what is written and reality. What works for one person is unlikely to work for others as our ability to properly associate cause and effect for success is often questionable. For example, despite the current love-fest after his departure, there's only one Steve Jobs; there is much we don't know about how he really ran Apple, and so it would be very dangerous to go too far in emulating what we do know about him and how he ran his company.
We all have to pay our dues and we're going to learn much more in our own endeavors than any blog post or nugget of wisdom. The latter have their place, but most success is a symphony; many things have to come together at the right time and work smoothly in unison to ensure success. Looking back or even reflecting at the time, you're unlikely to get a full picture of the person you're hoping to emulate. Make your own music and realize that you can only be you and the only real silver bullet is a never ending quest for self-improvement and learning. Take from the best of what you hear about others that are successful, but never confuse it with success coming from directly emulating your favorite startup's stories or you may find yourself chasing windmills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quixotism) like Don Quixote.
http://www.greenhornconnect.com/blog/don-quixote-and-quest-startup-silver-bullet