Hiking Again!

Today is a beautiful day. I went hiking again to the Stanford Dish. The view was breathtaking.

This time I went hiking with my friend Debra. Interestingly, when I thought about my hiking companions, I realized that both David and Debra are the classic "entrepreneurs". They have both made millions from working super hard and taking a lot of risk, very early on in their careers. David then decided to invest his money into a venture firm that he formed with several partners, and unfortunately this partnership was a failure and he lost a few million dollars. In Debra's case, she had been working on a second startup the past four years, and finally decided that it was time to give up, as there was not even traction and she's been funding it with her own money. With both of them, they encountered failures after enormous success.

I have had my very modest share of success with my first startup. My second startup has not been a success. It seems that in the world of entrepreneurs, those who remain in this community usually had success early on. Yes, they have experienced failures, and sometimes even crushing ones. But few life-long entrepreneurs encountered failures at the first try. It now makes perfect sense to me. Basically, if any would-be entrepreneur experienced crushing failure at the first try, likely he or she would come to the conclusion that this is the wrong career choice. If the first time is a success, and the next one is a failure, likely he or she would say, "well, it is not easy to do startups, but I have done it before and I can do it again."

I greatly enjoyed hiking with my older and wiser entrepreneur friends, but unlike them, I should not and cannot retire!