“And one day all the seemingly random data and experience they’ve acquired will end up as an insight in building something greater than the sum of the parts.”

Is there a good way to identify/document/infer from the major bullet points of failures? Quit my cushy corporate job in IL and drove across America more than a year ago now to do something meaningful. I haven’t yet connected all the dots, and I’m sure the patterns will be obvious when I’m all successful and look back on them to make a commencement speech at Stanford, but it’s just a goddamn hazy fog when you’re in the thick of it – in the middle of a graveyard of business experiments gone wrong! My lessons learnt for sure are not the rungs of a ladder, but it’d better be the base of a giant pyramid!

Thanks for your post – it’s like stumbling upon a copy of Frost’s “Road not taken” when you’re lost in a forest.

It’s as if the entrepreneurial attitude itself is your guide through the process — and that attitude is more in-tune with the potential positive outcomes in an uncertain environment than you yourself are.

I’ve heard creative writers talk about how they felt like they were serving as a conduit for some outside force to create a great piece of literature. They surprised themselves with how good the final product was. I think the entrepreneurial lifestyle is, in a lot of ways, similar.

Or at least, without that belief, I don’t think I’d make a very good entrepreneur.

I have become a recent regular reader of your blog. Thoroughly enjoy each one of your posts. This one particularly resonates with me.

Keep up the good work

Manager: “Sorry man we outsourced your job, I guess this was already in the works before I hired you. How do you feel about coding?”

Me: “Coding sounds like a great idea!” (please don’t fire me, I just moved out of my house for the first time, signed a lease, and have no idea what I’m doing)

I really enjoy your posts – thank you for taking time to place your experiences up on the web.

Thank you again.

-gary

21 months ago I left an awesome job at Oracle in Silicon Valley and relocated to India to be an entrepreneur. I’ve tried different things in India – sales training, software sales, advising entrepreneurs. It’s been a very, very difficult journey. I’m heading back to the US in the fall to pursue entrepreneurship in the US.

Steve’s post makes me feel better because I feel hungry all the time, though I usually do not feel foolish!

A version of your story about showing up for a job that didn’t exist happened to me when I reported for work at a lab in eastern Washington state years ago. There is no doubt that mistakes create opportunities. Who knows what I’d been doing now if I hadn’t showed up?