The two most important things to understand about startup investing, as a business, are (1) that effectively all the returns are concentrated in a few big winners, and (2) that the best ideas look initially like bad ideas. ― Black Swan Farming by Paul Graham
I’ve known many people like you describe. One was an MBA who earns at least a quarter of a million dollars per year as a manager at a major tech company. Another is a former CEO. A third wrote software for a quantitative training firm. They all tried to start startups. They said lots of incorrect things to me. For example, the MBA once lectured me about how The Art of War is irrelevant to the study of business strategy.
Nothing I said ever convinced these confident people they were wrong. I quietly started my own startup. One after another, all of their businesses failed, often after wasting lots of money. Meanwhile, my startup chugs along.
Most of them learned their lesson and quit the startup game. Except the most capable one, who learned a different lesson and joined my startup as a co-founder.
I’ve known many people like you describe. One was an MBA who earns at least a quarter of a million dollars per year as a manager at a major tech company. Another is a former CEO. A third wrote software for a quantitative training firm. They all tried to start startups. They said lots of incorrect things to me. For example, the MBA once lectured me about how The Art of War is irrelevant to the study of business strategy.
Nothing I said ever convinced these confident people they were wrong. I quietly started my own startup. One after another, all of their businesses failed, often after wasting lots of money. Meanwhile, my startup chugs along.
Most of them learned their lesson and quit the startup game. Except the most capable one, who learned a different lesson and joined my startup as a co-founder.