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I say build a company. Go where it takes you. If it takes you to a billion dollars, fine. If it takes you to a million, fine. If you aim to achieve a given numb

I say build a company. Go where it takes you. If it takes you to a billion dollars, fine. If it takes you to a million, fine. If you aim to achieve a given number, I suggest you question why your ego, as opposed to your business, needs you to achieve that number. Are you aiming to become number one or two in your business because you have substantive reasons, or is it becaused you once read about Jack Welch saying GE businesses had to be number one or two, and you took that message to heart for no other reason except Jack Welch said it? Are you aiming for the low millions coz you have a substantive reason for it, or are you doing it simply coz you admire Paul Graham who exited at those low millions and you want to be like Paul Graham when you grow up? Life is fluid, people and businesses change, goal posts get shifted all the time, businesses that shunned evil start being evil. These are just the places where businesses take people. Go where yours takes you. And if you don't like where it takes you, then by all means come back, shift your goal posts. Change your sport, even, if that's where your business takes you.

ryanelfman 11y ago
Great post with great perspective. I feel like a lot of the self-help community is responsible for the ego boost people get.
- amatic 11y ago
  Yeah, agreed. There was a wonderful website called "Guru ratings" where this guy read a whole bunch of self-helf literature and rated them and posted a short review. Can't find the site now, seems to be down. edit: https://web.archive.org/web/20110820085531/http://lukeprog.com/selfhelp/guru_ratings.html https://web.archive.org/web/20110820085531/http://lukeprog.c...
  - ryanelfman 11y ago
    That's a damn good find!
AndrewKemendo 11y ago
No one accidentally builds a Billion dollar business - so it's not the case that it just leads you there by default, you need to choose to be that size. At the same time though, you are right in the market leading nature of it. That is, while building your business the opportunity might arise that you can shift what you are doing and that shift would open up your market to a larger opportunity. Alternatively you could choose not to shift and go for a smaller win. Why I take issue with the original post is because it is basically saying, if it looks like there is a market opportunity to make a billion dollar company, don't take it.
- speeder 11y ago
  > No one accidentally builds a Billion dollar business Mojang?
  - AndrewKemendo 11y ago
    Nope. Mojang CEO Carl Manneh made a conscious decision to push Markus to sell to MSFT after Markus was starting to get burned out. Mojang could have stayed small, reorganized and kept moving forward but they decided to go for a big win and sell to MSFT. So it wasn't an accident, as it happens it lined up so that interests aligned for the buyout.
    - TillE 11y ago
      That's just how it was sold for billions. Mojang was built into a massively profitable company without ever really intending to do that.
    - crazy1van 11y ago
      The decision to sell to Microsoft may have been conscious, but what about all of the other decisions that got them to the point where they could get a big sale? I'm talking about the years prior of building and selling Minecraft. I don't think those decisions were made with a billion dollar exit in mind -- and really those are the ones that count the most.

ryanelfman 11y ago

Great post with great perspective. I feel like a lot of the self-help community is responsible for the ego boost people get.

amatic 11y ago
Yeah, agreed. There was a wonderful website called "Guru ratings" where this guy read a whole bunch of self-helf literature and rated them and posted a short review. Can't find the site now, seems to be down. edit: https://web.archive.org/web/20110820085531/http://lukeprog.com/selfhelp/guru_ratings.html https://web.archive.org/web/20110820085531/http://lukeprog.c...
- ryanelfman 11y ago
  That's a damn good find!

AndrewKemendo 11y ago

No one accidentally builds a Billion dollar business - so it's not the case that it just leads you there by default, you need to choose to be that size. At the same time though, you are right in the market leading nature of it. That is, while building your business the opportunity might arise that you can shift what you are doing and that shift would open up your market to a larger opportunity. Alternatively you could choose not to shift and go for a smaller win. Why I take issue with the original post is because it is basically saying, if it looks like there is a market opportunity to make a billion dollar company, don't take it.

speeder 11y ago
> No one accidentally builds a Billion dollar business Mojang?
- AndrewKemendo 11y ago
  Nope. Mojang CEO Carl Manneh made a conscious decision to push Markus to sell to MSFT after Markus was starting to get burned out. Mojang could have stayed small, reorganized and kept moving forward but they decided to go for a big win and sell to MSFT. So it wasn't an accident, as it happens it lined up so that interests aligned for the buyout.
  - TillE 11y ago
    That's just how it was sold for billions. Mojang was built into a massively profitable company without ever really intending to do that.
  - crazy1van 11y ago
    The decision to sell to Microsoft may have been conscious, but what about all of the other decisions that got them to the point where they could get a big sale? I'm talking about the years prior of building and selling Minecraft. I don't think those decisions were made with a billion dollar exit in mind -- and really those are the ones that count the most.