This is one of those pieces of startup advice that once I learned about it, I started seeing lots of connections to my own life. I think one of the more dangero

This is one of those pieces of startup advice that once I learned about it, I started seeing lots of connections to my own life. I think one of the more dangerous things about doing something on your own is the risk that you'll go down the rat hole on something unprofitable or unproductive. Consider that you spend a huge potion of your life on very well-worn paths that were cut by others. From the subjects you study in school to the business models you drive forward at work, everything has been done before by someone else and you are only doing it now because of a sort of survivor bias. The bad ideas and bad approaches have failed or been discarded and the better ideas have turned into Fortune 500 companies and academic departments. Walking those proven paths, you just have to do a reasonable job, follow the formula, and you're not likely to fail. Now lets say you've struck out on your own and you want to do something new that no one's ever been successful at before. Now you're essentially guaranteed failure. There's no more formula to follow. There's no more boss or teacher to tell you you're not on the right track anymore. You can no longer just plug into an existing money-making machine and start spinning, you have to build one from scratch. The best strategy is to get out of failing situations fast before they swallow you up. An analogy from skiing: When you're on the marked trails, everything has a name and difficulty rating so you know what to expect in advance. Hazards have been roped off and the trail is guaranteed to lead to a lodge or a lift. This is life within school and companies. Then you go off-piste and out of bounds. There's no longer any ropes or trail names or safety patrol, just a wild mountain. Some people have been through here before as you can see from the ski tracks in the snow. If you follow those tracks you might be ok. They will probably lead somewhere safe like a road where you can hitch-hike or a valley you can traverse back to the resort. But if you turn instead into the fresh snow where no-one has tracked before, you're in very dangerous territory. Who knows where this leads, hypothermia in a wilderness area, under an avalanche or very likely off a cliff. But it's a whole mountain of fresh snow just for you. This is entrepreneurship.