4 ms·
> He said that the best entrepreneurs, like Zuckerberg, have a definitive view about the future and plan for it; they don't willy-nilly chase luck--using statis
by d4nt 14y ago
> He said that the best entrepreneurs, like Zuckerberg, have a definitive view about the future and plan for it; they don't willy-nilly chase luck--using statistics, probability, and iterative processes--to stumble upon something, anything that flies.
I see no reason to lionize this kind of narrow mindedness in entrepreneurs. In almost every case, approaching a situation with this mindset will result in failure. I meet several entrepreneurs with this mindset every year, they are almost always convinced that they're the next Jobs/Zuckerberg and that everyone will be using their "Facebook but for {{ Social Group }}" within 6 months, despite the fact that they've been "working" on it for 3 years (part time) and so far haven't found a technical co-founder. The world is full of nut jobs like this, the fact that one or two of them happened to get fabulously rich doesn't even suggest a correlation, never mind causation.
EDIT: I respect Zuckerberg, he has many good qualities, he's focused on innovation and on maintaining engagement with his users, he's done a lot of experiments along the way, some of which have worked, some of which haven't. I do not ascribe his success to a refusal to deviate from the original plan and I'm not sure he would either.
- borlak 14y agoThat quote from Zuckerberg reminded me of when Groupon CEO refused to sell to Google for $6 billion... You can have all the view you want and believe in yourself -- but willpower doesn't equal success.
- redthrowaway 14y agoThe same thing sprang to my mind, but Groupon did hit $17.8B at its IPO. Any significant shareholders who cashed out then would have made off like bandits.
- tanzam75 14y agoYou can't always depend on market irrationality, though. VC firms became quite frantic during the market meltdown of 2008-2009. If a startup was burning cash, they told them to fire most of their staff. There was simply no exit possible -- either via IPO, or a sale to a larger company.