The myth of the overnight success
cdixon.org
The myth of the overnight success
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Re: The myth of the overnight success
#2Add OMGPOP and the recent "overnight" success of Draw Something to the list. All the articles touting it as the fastest growing game of all time ever painted the story as an overnight success, and failed to mention the backstory of the company. Not only has OMGPOP been around for 5 years, and raised 17M in VC funding, but the game itself has been around almost since the beginning as a web version, but only exploded in usage when it launched for iPhone.
Re: The myth of the overnight success
#3Two myths at play:
1. Overnight is never overnight. More probably you just never heard of it before.
2. If you just keep going you will eventually make it. But probably not. (http://swombat.com/2012/3/10/successful-people)
Believe what you want and act accordingly.
Re: The myth of the overnight success
#4To be a pedant, I can't imagine the coiner of this phrase or really anyone who has ever thought about it uses the term in the sense that something or someone became successful because of actions taken over a proverbial overnight. The examples he mentioned are things which became popular abruptly, which seems to embody the spirit of the phrase just right.
To take the point to the extreme, absolutely nothing could be considered an overnight success if we use the term in the sense the author implies because noone is wildly successful at something they attempt for the first time if they have no apriori knowledge of how to do it from previous attempts or study.
Re: The myth of the overnight success
#5Anyone know of any examples of overnight success or close to it?
Edit: Maybe Hot or Not?
Re: The myth of the overnight success
#6Anyone know of any examples of overnight success or close to it? Edit: Maybe Hot or Not?
Something like iFart perhaps?
I guess facebook was also a very quick success.
Re: The myth of the overnight success
#7Two myths at play: 1. Overnight is never overnight. More probably you just never heard of it before. 2. If you just keep going you will eventually make it. But probably not. ( http://swombat.com/2012/3/10/successful-people ) Believe what you want and act accordingly.
It's not "just keep going and you will eventually make it". It's a question of continuing to learn and make progress towards your goal over a long period of time (in this case, how to build a successful startup). Malcolm Gladwell calls it "deliberate practice".
For whatever reason most people can't do it, and that's okay, startups are not for everyone. But if you want to be a Pinterest type success, then that's what it will take.
Re: The myth of the overnight success
#8Anyone know of any examples of overnight success or close to it? Edit: Maybe Hot or Not?
Something like iFart perhaps? I guess facebook was also a very quick success.
Zuckerberg was already a great programmer before Facebook, and had a number of successful projects under his belt. Facebook also took years to build, its growth was not anything like what Pinterest has been experiencing.
Re: The myth of the overnight success
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something like iFart perhaps? I guess facebook was also a very quick success.
Zuckerberg was already a great programmer before Facebook, and had a number of successful projects under his belt. Facebook also took years to build, its growth was not anything like what Pinterest has been experiencing.
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Re: The myth of the overnight success
#10To me the closest example of an "overnight success" is where someone bursts on the scene as a celebrity because of their discovered personality. For example, people on reality shows become "niche" successful because they are discovered, rarely because they toiled away at that skill. However, their "success" still comes from years upon years of refined, unique experience to create the look+personality that created a star. If they had been discovered in the prepubescent period, it is almost a certainty nobody would have cared.
It's the same idea, just with different variables.