There’s a lot to be said for not dying as a startup.
Easier said than done!
There is, luckily, a way:
Stay alive.
Tell me where I’m going to die
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s partner in crime, has a wonderful quote on this:
“All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there.”
It may sound glib but the logic is faultless.
It’s useful when launching a startup.
Why do Startups fail?
There are hundreds of reasons, of course, but a few main ones:
They build something there’s no market for.
They run out of cash.
The team falls out.
They don’t find a successful distribution channel.
They lose focus.
Avoid these five pitfalls and you’re well on your way to not dying.
Consistency
It might sound straightforward.
It’s not.
The thing about not dying is you need to do it every day.
If you die for just one day; you’re dead.
Game over.
After year one with Unplugged I’m starting to see how easy it is to fail as a startup.
Things get complicated.
The more you grow, the more noise, the more distraction, the more fires to fight. Your attention gets pulled in many different directions.
You lose the forest for the trees.
This is where Charlie Munger’s advice comes in handy.
Trying to not die by avoiding the five pitfalls mentioned above is a good deal simpler than worrying about the hundred other things going on.
And if you can keep not dying? Sooner or later you might just create something remarkable.
What else?
I had the pleasure of appearing on Abhishek Kumar’s podcast (Thanks to Matt Stafford for the intro!) Have a listen here.
A final thought:
“We are all failures - at least the best of us are.”
- J.M. Barrie