Starting Right and Following Through
I mentioned yesterday that I gave skimboarding on the beach a try. As I was working on it, I began to realize that success in skimboarding relies on two basic principles: 1) you have to start right by hitting the board in stride, and 2) you have to follow-through.
Golf is the same way. You can half-heartedly swing a club and get anything good.
Many things are the same way.
Startups are the same way. People often post statistics about the high-failure rates of startups. My guess is that many of those startups fail because their founders only give them a half-hearted effort. Maybe they keep a foot in a stable job for too long. They never quite take the risky leap sufficiently enough to be fully dedicated.
Fred Wilson recently posted about the difference between starting and finishing (and the original post inspiration came from Mike Olson). These posts talk about how startups need starters and finishers. They need initial people that have an idea and energy and are willing to take on the risk.
More importantly they need people that can execute and build a great business through methodical application of well-grounded business principles. Finishers apply personal and organizational discipline to find success.
In hindsight, at AccelerEyes we took longer than we should have at transitioning from the “starting mode” to the “methodical mode.” We could have implemented some useful internal processes earlier that would have helped solidify our business sooner.
I’m glad we made the transition eventually. Now we are implementing EOS and it’s been a fantastic advantage for our business.
What are your thoughts on half-hearted failures? How has your startup made the transition from starting chaos to disciplined execution?