Pattern Breakers Quotes

“Effective movements require bold, decisive, and sometimes idiosyncratic leadership. Powerful storytelling, briefly mentioned earlier, motivates people to support and champion the cause. Grit, the willingness to choose unconventional methods others might shy away from, and even disagreeableness are often essential when confronting established interests.”
― Mike Maples Jr, Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future

“While initially targeting sizeable markets may seem logical, it rests upon a flawed assumption. It presumes that the primary path to a breakthrough start-up lies in addressing what established companies have failed to provide for their current customers. By adopting this perspective, a start-up unknowingly conforms to the established rules set by existing incumbents in existing markets. The start-up unintentionally forfeits its primary opportunity to create a true breakthrough, which is to deny the very premise of these existing rules.”
― Mike Maples Jr, Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future

“But you might be surprised to learn that many founders of breakthrough start-ups didn’t necessarily plan or execute better than the founders whose ventures never took off. Take X/Twitter for example. The founders differed on the vision. They kept changing who was in charge. The “Fail Whale” frequently appeared due to site overload, which happened almost every day.”
― Mike Maples Jr, Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future