Great Entrepreneurs are PASSIONATE about Customers & Products, NOT about being Great Entrepreneurs.

yeah, that's a super long-ass headline, i know... it's a personal soundbite from a Stanford BASES E-Challenge panel discussion i participated in earlier tonight over on campus.  probably plenty of other people have said something similar previously, but i'll at least claim some original thought.

(note: i've been on blog vacation way too damn long... since before i left for Japan in December really.  sometimes if you're not feeling it, you just need to take a break.  hopefully i'm back now)

here's my point -- Silicon Valley is WAAAY too infatuated with the ELEGANT IDEALISM of Entrepreneurship (or the GOLLUM GREED of making a shitload of CASH) , rather than the GRITTY REALITY of running a CRAPPY little startup business that will likely GO NOWHERE... which if you've ever been through it, is a tough, painful, low-probability motherfuck of an adventure, aka tragedy.  it ain't no merry go round folks (well it is, but not the way you think... probably rollercoaster is a better way to describe it).

now please don't get me wrong.... i'm not here to shit all over your enthusiasm for building a startup.  nor am i saying there is anything bad about wanting to make money, or wanting to be your own boss, or to valiantly attempt to defy the odds and create the next Google or whatever. 

but i DO hope some of you young-ass whippersnappers get your heads out of your collective asses and get a little more practical about what you're likely to encounter should you decide to do your own startup.  and a little more real about what you may face at the end of a rough hand of poker.

to wit: the first time i tried to do my own business, it took 7 years of hard work, below market pay, near bankruptcy (2 or 3 times), broken friendships, damaged relationships, credit card debt up to my ears, ridiculous stress, several missed opportunities for big paydays as a grunt at Microsoft, Intel, Netscape, or Yahoo, all in exchange for a piddly-ass half-million acquisition that barely got me enough cash to put a down payment on a small condo in SF.  sure it was a good lesson in learning how to [NOT] run a business, but it was a HARD goddamn lesson.  and one i'm pretty sure i never want to repeat. the fact that i still wanted to try and go back out and do another startup AFTER that first effort is prime evidence that i'm either crazy, stupid, or both.

another thing i said tonight is running a startup for the first time is a lot like being a teenager driving a car at high speed -- in fact many high schoolers learning to drive are required to watch a movie about fatal car accidents / drunk driving consequences (WARNING: don't click thru if graphic images disturb you).  those movies are sobering in every sense of the word, and they do serve a useful purpose -- to provide negative incentives against doing something stupid that could result in severe harm to you or others. 

well most people in venture capital or business school won't tell you this, but first-time entrepreneurs are just as friggin' dangerous as drunk teenagers behind the wheel of a speeding automobile.  mostly to themselves, but possibly also to their employees, customers, investors, or family.  now every once in awhile, one of them actually manages to make it across the finish line with flying colors... and unfortunately their success may justify VCs throwing their cash away on not just that 1% but also the other 99% who may end up mangled along the side of the road.  but that's how it goes -- VC is a hit [and run] business.  you just gotta hope you're the Super Model 1% and not the other Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am 99%.  Good luck, sucker.

(um dave: wtf does this have to do with your headline dude?  hold on buddy, i'm getting there...)

ok, so i have i put the Fear O' God in ya yet?  good.

now, if you're still with me at this point, you must be serious about being an entrepreneur.  only crazy, ignorant, passionate people would still be reading this, thinking that startups are worth all this hassle.

so when i say "PASSIONATE", what i really mean is PASSIONATE about SOLVING A PROBLEM, and PASSIONATE about BUILDING A GREAT PRODUCT or SOLUTION.  it does NOT mean you're infatuated with the idea of being an entrepreneur or a great leader (yeah, bullshit... i know you're still in L-O-V-E LOVE with yourself, but maybe after i've kicked you in the startup balls a few times you'll be less likely to engage in this mental masturbation without a little reality check). 

hopefully, being PASSIONATE means you are driven to make someone's life better by understanding their PROBLEM, and perhaps helping create a great SOLUTION to that problem, and possibly even making a buck by actually DELIVERING it to them (... at the cost of $.99 or less, we hope). 

ok, enough of this drivel.... get back to work. 

BUILD something, dammit.

Comments

[Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach.com]

Yep, you have to love your customers and what you do. I love teaching people and guiding them and seeing them succeed. That's my drive. Nice points in this post.

[daveschappell]

Should tattoo that on the inside of my eyeballs

Amen, brother

[TravisV]

Amen indeed. I'm tired of reading all the breathless "business strategies" from start-up CEOs that have no revenues. The only money many of them seem to be able to make is investment money. A talent in of itself, sure. But how about waiting until AFTER the business is successful before they start preaching to the industry about chasm crossing, schism crossing, business / IT alignment, et al.

[Lee Garverick]

Yep. The customer is the rock star, not the startup.

[Nick O'Neill]

Dave, this is so true. The only successful entrepreneurs I know were willing to work their but off for practically nothing just to build something incredible for the customer. For some convoluted reason the pain that entrepreneurs face at the beginning has personally become an inspiration for me to work harder. Either way ... great post!

[Elliott Ng]

OMG this is totally right on bro. Say it again from the mountaintops. Wean us off of our individual and collective narcissism so we can start focusing on doing important things where we don't care if we fail...and stop revering those who have exploited our worship of the entrepreneurial ideal to grab our undeserved attention. So say we all!!

[Mark MacLeod]

Love it. This should be essential reading for all startup entrepreneurs

[Dan Arkind]

Word.

[EP]

Thank you. I have to talk myself out of being an entrepreneur everyday. It's kind of like walking by a strip club: you know that nothing good is going to come out of going in there except maybe a fitter (trimmed down) wallet and a need to change shorts, but resisting the impulse takes active will. "I will walk right by, I will NOT open the door"

Thanks for the straight talk-- no intervention. Please tell me again tomorrow.

EP

[Krista Neher]

Wow - great article, and SO TRUE.

The success stories always get the most attention (who would want to publicize their failed start-up?) making it seem glamorous vs. the realities of how hard it is - both physically and emotionally.

Again, Great post - thanks for sharing :)

[Shawn Thompson]

Terrific advice. I could forward this to some of my old clients who remain focused on valuation rather than building their business and failed in raising needed capital because of it.

[Peter Rothman]

Hey Dave, I think you and I started the same company.

[Marissa Louie]

Love the kick-in-the-pants language.

Yes, damn, it's hard and I relate to a lot of what you went through.

Cheers,
Marissa

[Jennifer A. Jones]

Hilarious and absolutely right on!

[Jake]

I've reported you to the Silicon Valley thought police. Representatives from major VC firms with white coats should be at your door any second now!
First rule of SV entrepreneurship: we don't talk about the failures.
Second rule of SV entrepreneurship: we don't talk about the venture dilution machine.

[Alex Hillman]

A-fucking-men.

Being the CEO of a startup (or even being in one) has been glamorized. It's not sexy.

Startups are the 'punk rock' of the business world. It's ugly most of the time, but fuck it, we'll do it because we love what we're creating.

[Andrew Parker]

When Faulkner originally published The Sound and the Fury, he wrote in a letter to his editor that he wished he could publish the book in multiple color print, where each color would represent a change in time or voice.

Your blog posts totally remind me of that... the way you use colors is great, and really adds semantic value... to reblog this stuff in black and white would be to lose a piece of the meaning.

Anyway, keep up the great blogging, glad to see you're back.

[Mike Walsh]

I love it Dave - it's hard ass work - and thrilling to see customers succeed as the result of something that you built and delivered.

[Charlie]

You just made my Innovative Entrepreneurship class's reading list... :)

[Alex]

How about a tax on filing a company registration. Like $10,000 to incorporate (that doesn't go to a lawyer).

[Glenn Kelman]

Love it Dave, absolutely love it.

[Damon Billian]

That's why I make it a point to work for companies that have products I believe in & use in some way on a daily basis.

One of the problems I see in the Valley? Too much focus on the engineering side of the equation, not enough development on the "What the customer" wants side (you do, of course, have to balance company & customer needs in a reasonable way).

While I am not a CEO, largely because I am an idiot, I do get a great deal of joy from taking customer feedback & watching companies turn that feedback into a tangible product solving a problem of some sort for someone.

[Mukund Mohan]

Good post. Typical Dave style. But spare a thought for the young entrepreneurs, or first timers. Its not easy to figure this out and even entrepreneur who are "serial" dont get the customer problem right. Which is why you see so many "solutions" in search of a problem.

Its not a displaced thing to have passion to make money BTW. Different strokes. May not work for the entrepreneur but you cant say its wrong.

[Karl Long]

Great post Dave, I don't ever think to be quite so strident but you are dead right. I've lost a lot more over this last decade in my life than I have gained financially, but I have gained volumes in experience. I actually feel the last decade has been like a tough boot camp, and now it's really on :)

[Chris]

Yes.

Maybe learning this the hard way is all part of the true Silicon Valley Entrepreneurial experience.