Life Lessons: February 2008 Archives

Is success inevitable?

Is entrepreneurship simply a game of playing the odds and eventually succeeding? Or, is entrepreneurship learning from failure in order succeed?

Some would say it is both, but these questions are really irrelevant in the light of failure.

Acceptance of the possibility of failure is a must, as is acceptance of failure itself. 

Acceptance of the prospect of success is a must, as is acceptance of success itself.

Whether you believe success in entrepreneurship is luck or education, or both, you must accept failure to succeed.  If you believe it is luck, then you accept failure and roll the dice again.  If you believe it is education, then you learn from your failures and try again.

Whether you believe success will come by luck or learning, you will always face failure.  Not accepting failure, either way, is what causes your suffering.

Blindly rolling the dice until success is failing blindly.  Those who fail to see success, fail to succeed.

I don't mean this in any negative way.  On the contrary, I think quitting is often the best move to make sometimes.

Let me backup and clarify.  I don't want to convey the message that you (or I) should quit when the going gets tough.  In fact, my wrestling coach always used to repeat to me: "when the going gets tough, the tough get tougher". 

I strongly believe in staying the course and fighting the good the fight...when it makes sense.

If there is one thing I have learned from all of my "failed ventures" and past experiences on the Internet it's this: learn when to quit.

Sticking it out just because you won't let yourself give up may well show mental toughness, but it may also show stupidity.  Pride is irrelevant, especially in business.

Here are a few examples from my short life's experiences, some more mundane than others:

IVxChange

Our very first site/venture was IVxChange.com--a college community website for UC Santa Barbara and the Isla Vista community.  We worked our asses off getting it off the ground: Russ coded and built the site while Drew and I pounded the pavement soliciting businesses, landlords, and students to get involved on the site.  Two competitors launched at the same time for the same school and geography!  One was another student group and one was Uloop.com.  After months of hard work, the competition was too stiff--we were out-manned and out-"dollared".  We quit.

 
Friend Buddy Pals

Another venture was FriendBuddyPals.com, an online fansite, community, blog, and financial resource site all packed in one and built around Jim Cramer's show "Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer".  Again Russell built and coded; Drew and I wrote content, recaps, analyses, etc; and we all promoted the hell out of it to drive traffic to the site.  After hours of endless work there was little to show.  There was no way anything would materialize without a major time commitment each day.  It simply was not worth our time.  We quit.

PPC Arbitrage

Russ and I were running a PPC arbitrage campaign a while back on the insurance industry.  There was potential to make a ton of money and we were on track to make it but it took up entirely way too much time.  It was a clear trade off of time for money.  This was no good in my opinion.  We quit.

A Book

I like to read 3-4 books at a time and switch back and forth among them otherwise I get bored.  I used to force myself to read through all of a book even if it was terrible. Now, I know to put a book down if there is nothing I can get out of it.  No more needless "pride".  I quit.

 
A final word

I heard someone quote another person the other night.  The quote was: "Fail quickly".  It's better to figure out that you screwed up quickly so that you can cut your losses, mend your wounds, keep your friends, and get out.