CHAPTER 5
Why the Best Ventures Seem Worthless (or Impossible, or Stupid)
Almost every successful entrepreneur can recant many examples of how people thought his or her idea was ridiculous. History is replete with famous rejections by people who didn’t share the entrepreneur’s complete confidence in the value of an idea, just as the “anti-portfolio” of Bessemer Venture Partners testifies. To paraphrase Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, entrepreneurship consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and doing what nobody has done.1
That’s what’s so important about those who build value from an idea that either no one sees or dismisses as worthless, impossible, or stupid. Who would see value in sending a package from New York to Newark by way of ...
Get Worthless, Impossible and Stupid now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
