I also like how his tale shows a progression over time in startup ideas that almost kept getting simpler and easier with each new iteration. The core feature(s) of Twitter is pretty darn simple to build out -- scaling it up is harder, sure, but that's a Maserati problem and the kind you may never have the privilege of having anyway. But it was a neat idea, they executed it, nailed it well, and lots of other people loved it. The lesson here with them is you don't have to build something that's very big or hard or complicated, you just have to build something people want and ideally love and tell their friends about it so you don't have to advertise -- if people learn by word-of-mouth your cost-of-customer acquisition approaches zero.
Timing Lessons
31–38 of 38 posts
Re: Timing Lessons
#32"Overnight success takes a long time." Paul Buchheit http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009/01/overnight-success-t...
I like that quote/notion too.
However, I don't think the time aspect of his success story is about an overnight success taking 10 years as much as it is about refining one's product & market acumen over time, combined with having the luck to put something on the market (micro-blogging service) at just the right timing when a lot of people are ready for it (traditional blogging had become mainstream, but also lots of bloggers had become dissatisfied with the ROI and/or blog readers were looking for smaller/easier things to read and/or with more frequent updates AND smart phones were taking off with full web access on the go).
Enter Twitter. They executed well, but I think they also had very lucky timing.
Re: Timing Lessons
#33More specifically, it seems you have to do basically the same project for 10 years too.
Re: Timing Lessons
#34More specifically, it seems you have to do basically the same project for 10 years too.
(wasn't intended to be snarky, I don't think there's anything wrong with doing the same project for 10 years. That's how long it takes to hit the home run. Maybe the whole "10,000 hours" thing is more finely targeted than people initially assume)
Re: Timing Lessons
#35Joel Spolsky (2001):
"Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it."
Re: Timing Lessons
#36It's called luck
True. But skill also. Luck let's you roll a 6 if you need one. Skill makes sure you get to the roll the die 10 times.
Skill and perseverance.
A "lucky break" is more likely to come along if you keep at it for a decade than if you give up after the first non-successful year.
I think skill comes in two forms: The skill of making something that people want to use, but also the skill of recognizing and making the most out of "lucky breaks".
Re: Timing Lessons
#37"Overnight success takes a long time." Paul Buchheit http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009/01/overnight-success-t...
I live and work in Hollywood, and the conventional wisdom here is that "overnight success" takes 8-10 years.
Re: Timing Lessons
#38Twitter's real founding story. The not so famous version.
http://www.quora.com/Twitter-1/How-did-Jack-Dorsey-Ev-Willia...