Week 44: I Lose, Reality Wins.

The meaning of success in school and university is the antithesis of reality. If we compare what success means in school or university VS real life at work, it’s completely wrong.

In school and universities:

Effort == Success

This doesn’t translate well at all to business (especially startups) where:

Effort != Success.

Effort doesn’t correlate one-to-one to success. You may work for a year. And no one buys your product or you are net negative or anything but success. Viola, Effort = 100%. Success = 0.

Real life punches you in the face. Customers punch you in the face. Reality wins, you lose. Reality won, I lost – 2 times before.

Metrics don’t move because we spent 30 days and 30K of employees salaries on an experiment. Metrics move because we provided a service people want. Until we find that formula, reality will always win.