A startup doesn't have to be your life's work, but if it is, you become much harder to defeat. You play the long game and you outlast everyone. Because practically everyone else is an opportunist by comparison.
Paul Graham says lifelong commitment makes startups harder to defeat
Alexis Ohanian says it applies to venture capital.
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Many users praised founders and VCs treating their work as lifelong missions because persistence and compounding efforts let them outlast rivals, while a few replied with personal attacks on the authors.
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Yes. And fortunately your VC fund can also be your life's work!
A startup doesn't have to be your life's work, but if it is, you become much harder to defeat. You play the long game and you outlast everyone. Because practically everyone else is an opportunist by comparison.
@mimassi That is definitely not true. Viaweb was not my life's work.
@paulg For the best entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship is a pursuit of creative expression disguised as a business pursuit. As Warren Buffett said, “The truth is I regard berkshire like an artist regards a painting - except for me the canvas is unlimited.”
@paulg A startup has to be the team's life's work, otherwise it is certain to fail.
@paulg One of my professors told me to be prepared to eat a shit load of glass, that’s always stuck with me
@paulg I guess I was too radical. A startup can succeed without being the team's life's work, but this is the exception, not the rule. Huge success normally requires the team to happily go all in and be fascinated by their company’s mission.
@paulg Once a founder always a founder because 99% of companies are too scared to hire them.
@paulg How many QR codes do you collect? Yes.
@paulg Absolutely. Eventually, you're not playing the game anymore. Your approach becomes the game everyone else is playing and optimizing around.
@paulg outlasting and outworking everyone is how you win
@marksoares @paulg Someone should make a talent pool/directory for the 1% of companies that are looking to hire ex-founders
@paulg this is a great maxim
@paulg imagine ur life's work being a database wrapper
@paulg To fulfill my life’s work, I need to get the cost of materials to the cost of their cheapest source of atoms plus the cost of energy required to break/form bonds… I am entirely opportunistic on the path and order but that is the goal
@paulg when you make your life's work, you become unstoppable
@paulg filed this away for when I need to explain why I'm still here.
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@mimassi I wouldn't even say it's the exception. Startups are rarely the founders' life's work.