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Showing posts from November, 2007

In search of common sense

Guy Kawasaki wrote an article a few days ago titled: In Search of Inexperience He talks about why serial entrepreneurs are not necessarily what they're cracked out to be - implicitly arguing in favor of first-time entrepreneurs. I wrote a comment there which I'm reproducing below. ____________________________________________ I agree with the premise, but disagree with the analysis. In other words, the theorem is correct but the proof is wrong. In the 8 years since I first dived head-first into entrepreneurship, I've found that people with common sense - in this Silicon Valley chockfull of analysts, MBAs, VCs, and "angels" - are an endangered species. It is plain common sense that anyone who is hungry, passionate, persistent and all that good stuff is more likely to succeed than someone who is not as motivated. But the malaise afflicting the armchair quarterbacks in the Silicon Valley (i.e. anyone who is not an entrepreneur) is the obsession with b

The Man Who Thinks He Can

A blog post by Guy Kawasaki inspired me to go digging for this classic poem. Dedicated to all my fellow bootstrapping 'Agile Entrepreneurs'. The Man Who Thinks He Can If you think you are beaten, you are; If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win, but think you can't It's almost a cinch you won't If you think you'll lose, you're lost, For out in the world we find Success begins with a fellow's will; It's all in the state of mind. If you think you're outclassed, you are. You've got to think high to rise. You've got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize. Life's battles don't always go To the stronger or faster man But sooner or later the man who wins Is the one who thinks he can. Walter D. Wintle, "The Man Who Thinks He Can." - Poems That Live Forever, comp. Hazel Feldman 1965