“There is also a complementary force at work: if you want to build great things, it helps to be driven by a spirit of benevolence. The startup founders who end up richest are not the ones driven by money. The ones driven by money take the big acquisition offer that nearly every successful startup gets en route. The ones who keep going are driven by something else. They may not say so explicitly, but they’re usually trying to improve the world. Which means people with a desire to improve the world have a natural advantage.”
Mean People Fail, by Paul Graham from 2014
(Thanks Paul)
What’s would you guess the ‘people who refused first offer then their company tanked’ to ‘people who refused first offer then it went huge’ ratio is?
Because they don’t usually write stories about the former.
Jun 26th, 2018 / 3:47 am
‘Startup’ culture in my experience and observation, is simply romanticized capitalism. But the goal is still to generate or create through disrupting status-quo businesses, duplicity and even outright lies, as much capital as you and your organization can, offers not a single solution to the issues most disrupting society at this point.
I am sure their are some exceptions, but nothing in ‘the valley’ resonates more than having a lot of money. The dollar is king. Of the start-up people I’ve dealt with most are sociopaths to some degree. I often wonder if our entire economy isn’t driven by sociopaths. The desire for more – always- the idea that there is no limit on what a company should do to maximize profits. The pay-offs to employees via the stock market to just keep everyone working away… It will be a long while until humans overcome this addiction of dollars, and we may well destroy ourselves before we do.
Jul 7th, 2018 / 1:01 pm