Elon Musk is both infuriating and admirable, but few would accuse the world’s richest man of lacking perseverance. Taking Tesla and SpaceX from easily overlooked startups to giants that are hard to ignore in the previously obscure fields of electric vehicles and commercial aerospace, respectively, requires a high degree of stubbornness.
Marc Andreessen, the billionaire co-founder of venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, credits Musk’s refusal to give up as driving both companies’ success. In an era when many startup founders are taught to “fail fast” and move on, Anderson believes Musk offers guiding lessons for us to do the opposite.
“He deserves to lose Tesla and SpaceX,” Anderson said in a statement. interview ElevenLabs published this week. “They all should have gone bankrupt multiple times. Basically, for any other founder, I think they would have probably gone bankrupt.”
SpaceX’s success is far from guaranteed. “It was rocket after rocket explosion,” Anderson said, describing an “inspiring” compilation of videos of each failed SpaceX rocket leading up to the company’s first successful launch.
He added: “Who wants to invest in a company when rockets keep exploding? There are times when they almost lose the company.”
August 2008, wired Ask Musk how he remains optimistic after all the rocket failures.he Replied“Optimism, pessimism, fuck it; we’re going to make it happen. Because God is my bloody witness, I’m determined to make it work.”
A month later, SpaceX become The first private company to launch a liquid-fuel rocket into orbit.Musk later admitted With the company in “difficulty” financially, “if it fails it’s definitely game over.” Instead, three months later.Space Exploration Technologies Corporation Winning NASA contract Providing services to the International Space Station is worth more than $1 billion.
As for Tesla, legendary investor Jeremy Grantham recently said that even in 2019, “it looks very uncertain whether it will be around in two years” Courtyard and friends podcast. “They were running into a cash crunch.” Grantham acknowledged the mistake of not investing in the automaker at the time, even though he was impressed with the Tesla he purchased. Between then and now, Tesla’s market value has increased tenfold.
“Fail fast” and “blind stubbornness”
Anderson noted that many startup founders adopt a “fail fast” mentality, which essentially means that if a business idea doesn’t work after a certain point, it’s time to move on and try something else instead. Years of wasted life on it. .
“It makes sense,” he said of the philosophy. “How much of your life are you willing to spend trying to do something that doesn’t work? Many companies adapt and modify their strategies along the way.”
But, he adds, “I’ve seen greater success come from the opposite approach, which is basically like – almost but not quite – blind stubbornness.”
Anderson said that while Musk has assembled “excellent teams” at both companies, “part of the reason is that he won’t quit. By the way, not quitting is contagious. When you have a company leader who holds this When you lead with attitude, that’s a big thing.”
Of course, not every new startup is based on a world-changing vision, and some business ideas will never succeed. Silicon Valley angel investor Elad Gil recently warned against wasting years of your life in this situation.
“People end up spending years and years and years honing something that doesn’t work, because if I make these three more tweaks, maybe it will work, and if I keep going, maybe this month it will. It will work,” he said The Logan Bartlett Show podcast. “For a very small number of cases it will happen, but for most cases it will take effect immediately, or almost immediately.”
Anderson acknowledged the dangers and suggested that founders should consider whether to keep trying, saying “the basic framework I would use” is that a startup has a five-year chance to prove it can succeed. He noted there are exceptions, but noted, “After the fifth year, without clear signs of improvement and success, you’re going to have a hard time keeping the team… At some point people are going to lose confidence.”
This could lead to key talent looking for opportunities elsewhere.
On the other hand, he said, “Some founders spend their entire lives executing a fail-fast strategy. The problem is that it’s a risk-minimizing framework that basically prevents success.”
At its limit, he said, this means “you can never stick with anything long enough to make it work… There are people who do. They had the chance to achieve great things, they just gave up too much.” Soon.”
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