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The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

sethgodin.typepad.com

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Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#11

Post by nir »

richtaur wrote: post #10

So this theory kind of screws over the popular startup mentality, right? A friend of mine got $500k in financing for his startup, so he basically only has a year. He can't afford to be patient...

Tactics is how you implement strategy.

Your friend's tactic can be to produce within a year something that either has enough revenue to carry itself further (not easy ;) or that shows enough promise to raise a second round on.

If I understand Godin, he warns against a tactic of trying to sell the company within that year. It happened before, but as a plan it's like moving to Hollywood with a strategic goal to become a film star within a year.

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#12

Post by pius »

richtaur wrote: post #10

So this theory kind of screws over the popular startup mentality, right? A friend of mine got $500k in financing for his startup, so he basically only has a year. He can't afford to be patient...

I think the two views are compatible. The message I got from Seth here is to take the broad, macroscopic view; if your first startup fails, don't quit, try again. And again. And again, if need be. Be patient.

This essay was good, but I thought Ira Glass presented a related idea in a much more powerful way here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE. Depending on where you are in your career/startup/creative life, this 5 minute clip of Ira Glass could be the most important thing you watch all year.

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#13

Post by jmtame »

hibrian wrote: post #8

He makes an interesting/controversial point: "It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web." ... "Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul." I wonder how many people doing startups are prepared for success to take ten years.

I wouldn't look too far into the number "ten years" and think it applies to every single startup. Obviously, this isn't true, and I think he's using it more as just a way of saying "it takes a while."

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#14

Post by jrockway »

Alex3917 wrote: post #6
demallien wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think his point is that the web is no different from any other business, even if it looks like things happen much faster, in reality you have to keep working for a long time before things really go big. Of course, I might be wrong :-)

Web or no web, the fastest way to become an overnight success is to put in ten years of hard work.

With enough coffee...

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#15

Post by menloparkbum »

The iPod was designed and manufactured in less than a year. It sold 125,000 units in the first month. That's his definition of a dud? Likewise, Google went from being a stanford research project to the best search engine in less than 3 years.

His premise is wrong and the article is an apologia for being slow. Every huge success on the web, and in the computing/internet sector in general has been the result of being better and faster than the competitors. 10 years is way too long. If you haven't succeeded in 2-4 years you are doing something wrong.

The trap: sprint all day and run out of energy before the marathon even starts.

Runners who win marathons can run all day at a pace most people would consider sprinting.

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#16

Post by sh1mmer »

menloparkbum wrote: post #15

The iPod was designed and manufactured in less than a year. It sold 125,000 units in the first month. That's his definition of a dud? Likewise, Google went from being a stanford research project to the best search engine in less than 3 years. His premise is wrong and the article is an apologia for being slow. Every huge success on the web, and in the computing/internet sector in general has been the result of being b…

I think his point about the iPod was it started out not turning the market around. See this sales graph from the Wikipeida iPod page (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Ipod_sales_200...). It was almost 2 years after launch until the iPod sales really started to shift upwards significantly.

I think his point is that persistence is important. It's not about apologising for being slow, it's understanding that you need a certain social capital to become big in a market. That can take time.

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#17

Post by sh1mmer »

michael_dorfman wrote: post #2

Nice article, but what's the deal with the title? I mean, his point is that patience is the secret of success-- the web doesn't really factor into his argument at all....

It's because web has given people an attention span of a few minutes so if they don't accomplish anything in that time they just give up and wander awa...

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#18

Post by [deleted] »

menloparkbum wrote: post #15

The iPod was designed and manufactured in less than a year. It sold 125,000 units in the first month. That's his definition of a dud? Likewise, Google went from being a stanford research project to the best search engine in less than 3 years. His premise is wrong and the article is an apologia for being slow. Every huge success on the web, and in the computing/internet sector in general has been the result of being b…

[deleted]

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#19

Post by jmtame »

menloparkbum wrote: post #15

The iPod was designed and manufactured in less than a year. It sold 125,000 units in the first month. That's his definition of a dud? Likewise, Google went from being a stanford research project to the best search engine in less than 3 years. His premise is wrong and the article is an apologia for being slow. Every huge success on the web, and in the computing/internet sector in general has been the result of being b…

Every huge success on the web...has been the result of being better and faster than the competitors.

100% true. You can take 10 years to build whatever you want, but you're going to have to learn to put in the hours if you really want something in the next 1-4 years. You hear about companies like PayPal doing an IPO in 4-5 years (and right after 9/11), but you don't realize that their engineering teams were pushed by Levchin, who works--and expects his team to work--15+ hour days and weekends. Intense? Yes. But most of those early PayPal engineers walked away with enough to buy their next house in cash and comfortably work on whatever else they wanted, like YouTube. The 2 engineers and the UI guy that did YouTube also probably brought with them the intense work ethic that allowed them to move as quickly as they did.

If you want a 1-4 year startup, then you're going to have to start making sacrifices. If not, other people out there are going to do it and you'll take the back seat, or spend 10 years creating what took someone else 2.

Re: The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

#20

Post by paul »

menloparkbum wrote: post #15

The iPod was designed and manufactured in less than a year. It sold 125,000 units in the first month. That's his definition of a dud? Likewise, Google went from being a stanford research project to the best search engine in less than 3 years. His premise is wrong and the article is an apologia for being slow. Every huge success on the web, and in the computing/internet sector in general has been the result of being b…

By what year was Google a "huge success"? Do you realize that they started working on it in 1996? (the company wasn't formed until late 98)
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