After the founder of Twitch (Justin Kan) sold his company to Amazon for $1 billion, an interviewer asked him, "Don't you think you won the lottery?" His answer was the best description of being a founder I've ever heard:
He said, "Want to know something crazy? My brother, who lives downstairs from me in my house, sold his company for $1B to Ford. We are not geniuses, by any stretch of the imagination. When you are in the startup game, it's not like winning the lottery… Being in the startup game is like ACCRUING lotto tickets. And the more tickets you have, the more likely one is to hit."
I've never had a $1b exit.
But I've been in this startup-game long enough to know he's right.
Every company you start is a ticket.
Every failure is a ticket.
Every painful lesson is a ticket.
The founders who "got lucky" weren't lucky.
They just kept buying tickets.
Adam
P.S.
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