Startup Lessons from the Chisholm Trail

Today I visited the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Oklahoma. The Chisholm Trail is a south-to-north route over which cattle were driven from Texas up to the railroad in Kansas where they were sold and shipped east.

Here is a history lesson on cattle herding from which straightforward startup analogies can be drawn:

As herds traveled from the south to the north, they would start small and add cattle along the journey (either by picking up strays or by joining with other herds from ranches they passed traveling north). The success of the drive depended in large measure on the ability to assimilate new cattle onto the trail as the drive made progress. Each new cattle needed to be “trail broken” before the herd would move as a single unit.
Several times throughout the journey, the herd would be spooked and stampede. During those moments, the cowboys would bend the herd into a circular rotation to keep from losing too many cattle and to let the herd get tired without going very far afield.
Cowboys would encounter roadblocks along the way. Native American tribes would demand payment for safe passage. Private ranchers would demand the herd take a costly detour rather than cross over private land. Rivers would rise, fall, and change course. Storms would come and go. Through it all, the cowboys had to keep the herd together and make steady progress towards the Kansas railroad.
Ill-tempered cattle cost more than they are worth. One ill-tempered steer could kick off a massive stampede which would cause the loss and destruction of more cattle and property than it is worth. They had to be removed from the herd before causing damage.

I found the cattle ranching stories of the early US very interesting, and the frontier mentality is similar in many respects to startup-building.

What analogies can you draw between cattle herding and startups?

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