I have two pet peeves here. One, this wasn't a rant. It was neither bombastic nor over-emotional. It seemed to me to be wholly uncontroversial. If anything, th

I have two pet peeves here. One, this wasn't a rant. It was neither bombastic nor over-emotional. It seemed to me to be wholly uncontroversial. If anything, the relatively conservative steps he advises (starting a business with only moderately successful aims) seem downright boring. Second, the failure rate for new businesses is not 80 or 90%. Even a little bit of googling would put that to rest. To wit: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/news/coladvice/ask/sa990930.htm http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/news/coladvice/ask/sa99... And, as the article points out, the very buyout scenario that many YCers (HNers, really, unless you've been accepted) dream of would be counted among the failures. Fewer than 10% of these failed businesses were the dreaded bankruptcies. Seriously, nothing to see here. And if any of you really were convinced that you've got a 90% chance of failure, you would stop complaining about 37 signals "rants" and get to work shoring up your (apparently) failing business.