"PG's advice to Charlie about focusing on an idea they're passionate about, and an idea that they could see themselves working on for the next 5 years is sound.

"PG's advice to Charlie about focusing on an idea they're passionate about, and an idea that they could see themselves working on for the next 5 years is sound." Except for one thing. Passion about something is not something that you wake up in the morning, think about a bit, and then go pursue it. You won't find a single story in legacy business history of someone who started a wildly successful business because they woke up one morning and thought "I want to start a business". It happened the other way they were going about their business and noticed a need or had an inspiration or idea and then decided to pursue making it a business. Only exception is now in the current day and age we have so many people doing so many things with ease of entry some people are able to pull this off it seems. In the case of YC or other incubators we now have people who are attempting to just "come up with an idea and fill a need" and while some are succeeding it's not the way businesses have started ever before. Generally. And the process of finding something takes time as well and there is much serendipity involved (and that doesn't operate according to a schedule either). Now it is possible to "think up" a business but that process can take years. In the case of my first business I had the inspiration one day while in college, pursued it out of college and then thought of a better idea which is the one I actually did. The process took time and there was no particular deadline. That idea worked and I sold the company (9 years later). The 2nd business on the other hand took me 4 years or 5 years to come up with an appropriate "inspiration" as I investigated various possibilities (flying around to trade shows). There was no deadline that I was working under ("demo day"). Just whenever I found something I would do it. And I finally did and it worked out as well. My point is, I don't think you can say to someone "focus on an idea you are passionate about" and they go off and "think" and come back with "yeah we want to do X we are passionate about it".