Love and startups share an intersection—they are both glorified. Love is glorified in movies; startups, in the news. Both are defined by immense highs and immense lows. And yet, in practice, they are almost orthogonal.
For one, the trajectory of a startup is such that nothing good happens for years—then it all clicks. The trajectory of love, on the other hand, begins with everything clicking, and then becomes a battle to keep it that way.
Second, the approaches to success in both domains couldn’t be more different. In startups, impatience and ambition are the driving forces of growth. In love, patience and humility are the building blocks. With a startup, one must coerce, blackmail, and torture the universe into a result. With love, serendipity simply happens.
Love, I would argue, is fundamental to human nature. Conversely, startups run counter to human intuition. Nothing about them is intuitive.
Conventional wisdom says that the profits of a business are all that matter. In startups, however, it’s about growth—at all costs.
Conventional wisdom tells CEOs to give up control when hiring, to let people do what they do best. Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, says the opposite: micromanage every part of the business.
Conventional wisdom says to work on cool ideas. Yet Patrick Collison proves otherwise, showing that the real money is made in the boring, “schlep” idea spaces.
Conventional wisdom says to graduate from college, build your résumé, and gain industry experience before starting a company. The truth is, none of that prepares you for being a founder. Just start fucking building.
Startups are unconventional by nature. They run directly against our most human emotions. But perhaps that very unconventionality is what creates infinite upside.
The Clueless Founder 