The default state of a startup is failure

If you are starting a company and wondering why nothing good seems to happen unless you force it to happen, that’s because the world wants to stay the way it is. Customers, partners, and most of all incumbents don’t want to think hard, try new things, or change in any way. The world is lazy and just wants to keep doing what it’s doing.

A friend of mine got a job at a big company and was shocked to see his colleagues worked just a few productive hours a day. They didn’t seem to care about their work or have relevant expertise. My friend said: “Wow, this company is going under.” Then the company released its quarterly reports and profits rose to an all-time high. The momentum of the company’s brand and relationships was sufficient to propel it forward.

On the flip side, first-time entrepreneurs often fail to realize that when you build something new, no one will care. People won’t use your product, won’t tell people about it, and almost certainly won’t pay for it. (There are exceptions – but these are as rare as winning the lottery). This doesn’t mean you’ll fail. It means you need to be smarter and harder working, and surround yourself with extraordinary people.

The default state of the world is to stay the way it is, which means the default state of a startup is failure.

http://twitter.com/NickDaney Nick Daney

Chris – totally agree. Great post.

A startup is the representation of the positive energy of entrepreneurs who see the world different from its normal state (of restful inertia. The world here means big companies).

Entrepreneurs see failure as an option as well as a necessary step along the way and not an impediment. I recently heard from a VC that he does not invest in entrepreneurs who have not at least failed once – it is a prerequisite for the investments he makes.

The default state of a startup is failure – and there lies the competitive advantage of people who dream and are doers (the real entrepreneurs), to go against the grain like revolutionaries.

Nick Daney
http://www.facebook.com/lukemiler Luke Miler

As an additional note – it has also never been a better time to make, build and test any ideas quick and cheap. It super-excites me that anyone can be a maker and with smart iterating, learning and persevering move up past the failure-state. So is the default state of a startup a failure? Yes. But are we in the exciting times – that never before we can move past it quickly and cheaply? Hell yea!

Start MAKING.
http://www.ombushop.com/ Ernesto Tagwerker

Chris, great article! It’s nice to read someone with more experience pointing this out. For someone with less experience like me, it’s worth a lot.

It’s good to know that it’s not just a personal feeling somedays but also something that other entrepreneurs feel. I like this in particular: “The default state of the world is to stay the way it is.”

My question is, in the “Pivot or persevere” meetings with your partners, how do you know it’s time to pivot? You may have a great team and product but the market (world) doesn’t understand your UVP. Or is too lazy to try it out.
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Rob Emrich

Chris, I just referenced this post in a blog entry.
The Happy Entrepreneur: Staying Positive In the Face of Persistent Bad News: http://bit.ly/LEmcFo
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Anonymous

I guess I agree but I wouldn’t call it failure. It’s a waste land, a watershed of the future.

Also, marketing goes a long way.
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Chris Dixon