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| A startup is a marathon, not a 100 meter sprint |
Sorry to write this, but you have to be able to endure a lot of discomfort and pain if you expect to succeed with a startup business. There are no real short cuts. There are no easy paths to success. There is an old line that says “the harder I work, the luckier I get”. The truth is that there is a lot of hard work and it usually takes time. Lots of it. Creating a successful startup is a marathon, not a 100 meter sprint.
Read John Nesheim’s blog post entitled: Longest Tennis Game in History : Lesson for Startups.
He writes about the recent Wimbledon tennis match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut that lasted 3 days and ended in a tie-breaker with the score 70-68 (which is 183 games). He writes the following:
BOTTOM LINE: Prepare for a very long run as you prepare to do your startup. Reality says you'll be running a lot longer than you believe you will run. And you'll run into unforeseen surprises as you round each corner. Those tennis players fought to the last stroke. You'll be expected to do the same. When that is in your gut, your soul, then you'll have what it takes.
Prepare indeed. Prepare yourself and adopt a strategy that will get you to the finish line with your startup business. Get help from experienced entrepreneurs who have already run the course.
I run a program for European Entrepreneurs called Fast-Track Funding. It is a program to accelerate the business development process and to increase the chances of getting seed funding quickly. It is not a short cut, but it will speed your progress. You can put your business on the fast-track to success. If you are interested in learning more, then contact me directly.
1 comment:
Thanks for the reminder, Rick. I have learned that life in general seems to be divided into periods of about five years: One major project or goal you want to achieve will consume about five years of your life, and the trick is to choose wisely and consciously what you want to spend your years on, because to succeed you need to focus. This applies whether you want to write a book, get a startup on its wings or start a family or something else of importance.
In an average lifespan there is room for a rather limited number of marathons of this kind. Make sure that you pick the right races.
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