A Smart Bear » It's a Torturous Chaos Until It Isn't

We all know “startups are hard,” but I think we tend to imagine that this difficulty is bounded, contained, modelable, a bit like running a marathon: yes, legs and lungs hurt, but that’s normal and appropriate, and we know the route, the distance, and that there’s a finish line. This is a kind of difficulty we can contend with without losing oursel... See more

We get excited about our smart idea; we race it to market; we expect the cavalry to arrive and make this easier. But the reality is that doing a handstand “takes about six months of daily practice. If you think you should be able to do it in two weeks, you’re just going to end up quitting”—or, for the founders who endure, end up surprised by how ha... See more

The success myth is a trap entrepreneurs fall into where they assume success will make their lives easier. But that’s not actually how success works in entrepreneurship. As you progress further into your entrepreneurial venture, the success and growth you achieve is going to lead to lots of challenges you weren’t expecting.

A wooden puzzle One summer, I was at a coffee shop (more a shack, actually) in a town comprised of four buildings. While the owner was making my coffee, I noticed a bunch of wooden puzzles, the kind where you have to put the pieces together so they all fit back into the box – almost like 3D Tetris. Done incorrectly, the pieces don't fit and the box

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