Why Start-ups are Such Rollercoasters

Joe — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:52:47 +0000

If there’s one thing all entrepreneurs can agree on, it’s that running a start-up will throw you through a huge gamut of emotions in a relatively short period of time. I’ve been thinking about why that is after a couple months on a pretty serious emotional rollercoaster. I concluded that it’s because when you’re running a start-up, your future is uncertain. And when you’re future is uncertain, it’s natural to take things which are otherwise statistically insignificant and extrapolate them to the point that they result in your ultimate success or failure. Like..

You start going after direct ad deals. You get two in the first week. Wow! Let’s see *math in head*, by February I should easily be sailing around the Bahamas in my new yacht.
Two days later one of the deals dies because the advertiser doesn’t like the test data. What if all our deals fall through? Should I put together a resume? Do I know anyone at Wal-mart that can get me a job?

It’s never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems. True, but hard to remember.

Beating the Books

Joe — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:59:34 +0000

I’ll pretty freely admit that I have a book addiction. I’d like to say I purchase a book, read it, then purchase another one, but that’s just not the case. What usually happens is I get interested in something, go to Amazon, and buy the top two or three books on the subject. As time goes on I collect more and more books until I have a huge stack of half-read books that I have to tackle. I usually get through them, but it’s a big mess.

To make matters worse, I got a Kindle for Christmas. That’s like putting a giant vodka vending machine in an alcoholic’s bedroom and taking away their anti-depressants. I can literally buy a book with a click of a button and have it in front of me within a couple of minutes. The results of my post-Christmas binge are starting to pile up (both in ebooks and real books), so I figured I’d challenge myself to finish all of them before I bought another book. After I finish a book from list the I’ll write up a short review and add some of my own thoughts, the check it off the list. Here she is:

The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
Inside the Tornado by Geoffrey Moore
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur by Dermot Berkery
Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts and Mergers & Acquisitions by Joshua Rosenbaum
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
Spin Selling by Neil Rackham
Solution Selling by Michael T. Bosworth
Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas A. Freese

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Why Start-ups are Such Rollercoasters

Beating the Books