CORE IDEA:

PURPOSE COMPONENT

“It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.”

—Paul Graham, Cofounder of Y-Combinator

KEY DEFINITIONS

Passion: A nearly boundless enthusiasm for the work required to turn your dream into reality.

Purpose: A deeper meaning than money.

Passionate people create the exceptional. No other people do. High-potential entrepreneurship is the pursuit of the exceptional. Nothing less will suffice. Anything less is failure. A lot of entrepreneurs come to us with ideas they hope will make them a lot of money. That’s important, but it’s not our first concern.

Our first concern isn’t the merit of the idea, but the passion of the entrepreneur.

Before we even begin to evaluate the idea, we evaluate the person. We work with passionate people. Life is too short to spend with anyone else, and exceptional businesses—ground-shaking, game-changing businesses—come from passionate people.

“Talent isn’t the basis for starting a business, passion is. Without passion about what you are doing, the project is sure to fail; it is dead where it stands.”[1]

—John Williams, Founder of LogoGarden

No matter how promising an idea might be, if it is in the hands of an entrepreneur who lacks passion for going through the painful exercise of turning it into reality, it is dead where it stands. This is because launching a successful startup is too hard for anything less than an unyielding passion to power a person through the process—all for an uncertain, unlikely, future reward.

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life living like most people can’t.”

—Posted at the EC, Author Unknown

There is no easy road to success in entrepreneurship (and if you found one somewhere else, we’d be surprised by that too). Entrepreneurship requires a special sort of effort. Entrepreneurs don’t get a five-day, nine-to-five schedule. They get an all-hands-on-deck-all-the-time schedule. Much of the literature and research in the field says that early-stage entrepreneurs must be prepared to work ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week. This is a decent baseline. But that doesn’t account for the higher-stress times when a deal is getting done, a big event is coming up, or something isn’t working right. Those times easily become eighteen-hour days and all-nighters until you either fail or survive the moment. These moments can encompass nights, weekends, and holidays. Unless you love what you are trying to do, your business won’t survive.

There is no such thing as a sure thing in this field. There are no guarantees your business will one day succeed and make you rich. It’s more likely, even if it’s a good idea and you are a good entrepreneur, that the business will fail. At some point, facing all the difficulty of launching your company, you will realize that. And if you are driven by anything less than a burning passion to pursue your idea anyway, you won’t. You will either give up, or you will plod along until you are forced to give up.

The only guarantees in entrepreneurship are uncertainty, unforeseen challenges, and change. If you read that sentence and said “Bring it on!” you likely belong in the startup world. If you said anything else, don’t worry—you are a sane, normal person, which is to say you probably shouldn’t be launching a startup.

Finding the “Right Side of Crazy”

Realizing you shouldn’t be launching a startup isn’t anything to be ashamed of. The world needs more people with a proclivity for entrepreneurial activity to go ahead and pursue it. The world needs more people who hear that calling to go out and create innovative, world-shaking businesses to damn the risks and heed that voice. But that’s still a small sliver of the world’s population.

“Academics and hiring consultants say that many successful entrepreneurs have qualities and quirks that, if poured into their psyches in greater ratios, would qualify as full-on mental illness.”[2]

—David Segal, The New York Times

This is because any sane, rational person would look at the challenge of launching a startup, the extremely high likelihood of failure, and say, “Why put myself through that?” This moment is inevitable for any entrepreneurs who choose to pursue launching a startup. They will find themselves working absurdly long hours while the rest of the world is out playing or sleeping. They will find themselves pouring their lives into something other people tell them will never work.

“You need to suspend disbelief to start a company. So many people will tell you that what you’re doing can’t be done, and if it could be done, someone else already did it. There are six billion human beings on this planet, we’ve been around for hundreds of thousands of years, we’re a couple hundred years into the industrial revolution—and nobody has done what you want to do? It’s kind of crazy.” [3]

—Paul Maeder, General Partner at Highland Capital

We agree. It is crazy. And that’s part of what makes it so fun. When we begin a cohort at the EC, we don’t mince any words letting people know how difficult what they are trying to do is. We convey that reality to all the entrepreneurs who launch an entrepreneurial mission, because we want them to know how hard succeeding is. Something more than hope for a payout is going to be necessary to push them through and make the experience worthwhile. Of course, the conversation rarely rattles anyone’s cage, because the room is full of entrepreneurs. Every single one of them, no matter the odds they are told, just knows he or she will be the one who succeeds. Each one turns to the rest and says there will always be a job for them at his or her company.

This mentality is what we refer to as “the right side of crazy.” Entrepreneurs who have any chance of succeeding must be crazy enough to believe they will succeed where they shouldn’t, to believe insurmountable odds only exist for others, and to believe they are meant to pursue their missions. But they also must be reasonable enough to develop realistic, executable value models and strategies, receive criticism and feedback, and use it to make something stronger. It’s a fine line that entrepreneurs walk, which is why so many fall off one way or the other, but it’s the only line to big, beautiful success.

Do You Want It, or Do You Love It?

These entrepreneurs, powered by a passion for what they are doing every day, have a chance at succeeding. Passion will force them to keep trying when everyone else tells them to quit. Passion will convince them to risk everything for the life of their startup when it’s necessary. Passion will convince them it’s a good idea to race across the high wire without a safety net. Want can’t do that. Passion leaves no other choice.

Some aspiring entrepreneurs disagree. Some aspiring entrepreneurs think a desire to make a quick buck, or millions of bucks, is enough to fuel the success of their startups. We disagree, and so do the vast majority of people experienced working with people like you. If you aren’t passionate about the mission, then quit now and find something else. You deserve better, and so does the mission.

“You’ve got to be passionate about what you’re working on. A lot of people are starting businesses because they think it’s an opportunity to make some money. You occasionally get lucky, but that doesn’t really work. You have to be passionate about it.” [4]

—Steve Case, Founder of AOL

Wanting money just isn’t enough. It isn’t. There must be a higher purpose. At best, want can motivate a person to accomplish good things (or worse). Only passion inspires people to make exceptionally great things. A want for dinner leads you to microwave it. A passion for cooking made Wolfgang Puck one of the world’s best chefs. A want to connect with friends leads you to log on to Facebook. A passion for recreating the social experience online led Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook. A want for money leads you to go to work each day and do your job. A passion to help people manage their money leads you to create Mint.com. If you aren’t passionate about your concept, don’t waste your time, money, and sanity trying to make something that has little chance of succeeding. Launching a wildly successful entrepreneurial mission is too exceptional to result from want. You must have more motivation than that.

Building the American Dream

The world right now is a big, scary, screwed-up place. Lots of people—good, smart, hardworking people—are out of work. So many others are stuck, clinging to jobs they don’t like or that don’t pay enough like a squirrel clinging to its last, rotting acorn. Life doesn’t have to be like that. There is another way—the entrepreneurial way.

You should be proud of yourself for having the courage to grab this book and for taking a very large step toward controlling your own economic destiny. The American Dream is within your grasp, but if you want to claim it, you must step up and make it for yourself.

It’s in our national blood. We were founded by a group of people who were willing to sail across an ocean in a wooden ship to inhabit a violent, unsettled wilderness. They took that risk because they saw the opportunity to create a new world order. It wasn’t always easy, pretty, or promising, but eventually their humble startup became the world’s most prosperous nation. We can reclaim that greatness if we reclaim that boldness, daring, and vision. We must start by reclaiming control over our own lives.

As an aspiring entrepreneur, you’re taking the first step—the first step of many that will lead you to a place of economic self-reliance and life fulfillment. It’s going to be a great ride.

Connecting to the Universe

Engaged in the act of entrepreneurship, it is difficult not to feel connected to something larger than yourself. By thinking of something in your mind and going out and actually creating it, and by turning nothing into something, you are participating in an activity that makes many people feel as connected to the universe as they ever feel. It’s a magical experience. It’s a powerful experience. It’s waiting to be your experience.

We Work with Passionate People

Some entrepreneurs come to us with ideas they are convinced are sure successes (there’s no such thing), but they aren’t passionate about the mission. They aren’t passionate about the purpose of what they would be creating. They are shocked when they find out we don’t want to invest our time working with them. They think we’re crazy. Stupid. Totally missing out on a huge opportunity.

It’s not worth our time—and it shouldn’t be worth yours, either. We choose to work with passionate people. So do reputable accelerators. Passionate people are the people who are fun to work with. They are the people who change the world. They are the people who succeed. If you aren’t passionate about your mission, you will not succeed in launching a meaningful startup. You just won’t. And even if you did, you wouldn’t be very fun to work with.

We bet on David when he goes to face Goliath. Accelerators don’t just bet on David; they arm him, train him, and stand with him. And you know what? Giants fall. Passionate people defy the odds. Passionate people change the world.

Still not convinced? Think we’re wrong? That’s fine. Just go work somewhere else. Put this book down and work on something else with someone else. We don’t want your lack of passion to later reflect poorly on our program. Good luck. But remember, as soon as a smart, passionate person with an idea convinces some other smart, passionate people to help, they will beat you. And people like us will be helping them.

It’s a Lot of Fun

Let’s make sure we get this right: It’s a lot of fun. There’s nothing in the world like it. It has exhilarating ups and terrifying downs that all combine to make something magical. It’s hard work, sure. But it’s passionate work. You’re doing what you were meant to do. You’re fulfilling your purpose.

Purpose Inspires Passion

A deep connection with a higher purpose births passion. Our initial concern is two questions: What is the purpose of your business and why are you passionate about it?

Many aspiring entrepreneurs have difficulty seeing the forest from the trees. The purpose of your mission is the why behind the what. It is the reason for which your mission exists. An effective purpose inspires beyond the mechanical dollars and cents or whatever metrics you have for success and to the way your mission impacts humanity, the way your mission changes the world, and the way we interact with it.

You Need to State This

“Entrepreneurs must recruit and galvanize when a company is little more than a whisper of a big idea. Shouting ‘to the ramparts!’ with no ramparts in sight takes a kind of irrational self-confidence.” [5]

—David Segal, The New York Times

It’s not enough for you to think you know your purpose. The purpose that drives you to build your company isn’t just for you. It’s for everyone you will recruit to your team, for every person you will try to convert to a loyal customer, for the partners and investors you will recruit to stand with you, and to all the competitors who will try to squash you. Money alone can’t do this, especially when you are a startup without any money. Only a strong, honest declaration of your purpose can build the foundation for your success. One of your first tasks as an entrepreneur is to create that powerful statement that will launch your company and rally people to you.

The Formula for a Passionate Purpose Statement

Not just any purpose statement will do. You can’t galvanize the masses to the ramparts with just any sort of statement. An effective purpose statement must concisely declare two things: the what and the why of the business.

A Single Rifle Shot Well Aimed

“The essence of profound insight is simplicity.”

—Jim Collins, Author, Good to Great

Concision implies mastery. Verbosity exposes amateurishness. Your purpose statement should be a single sentence, no longer than twenty words.

Quite often, the very first sign of a novice entrepreneur, is a long, convoluted purpose statement. First-time entrepreneurs may laugh at the thought of boiling down their brilliant, complex business idea into just one sentence. They see the very thought that it could possibly be broken down so simply as insulting to how wonderful their idea is.

Those entrepreneurs will not inspire a team, get funded, or launch a wildly successful company until they understand the core of their startup so well that they can state its purpose within those constraints. Working through the exercise of boiling your mission’s purpose down to one sentence requires an intensive review of what your mission really is and what you are going to need to do to bring it to life.

It is supposed to be difficult. It’s difficult for even the most experienced entrepreneurs. And throughout the idea’s lifetime, especially in the beginning, you will likely think of better ways to state your startup’s purpose. That’s normal too. The best purpose statements are the result of many rounds of expansion and contraction: sometimes by piecing together one powerful sentence from pages of material, then growing the sentence again to a page, and then cutting it down to a new, better sentence.

It is a process, but it is a valuable process that will help you understand your startup even better than you did before. It will enable you to communicate your idea effectively. Your purpose statement cannot blast out like a shotgun, spraying tiny ball bearings in every direction, hoping desperately something hits the target. Even if part of such a scattershot purpose statement resonates with another person, its strength will be too diluted by all the other bits to make any impact.

The only way for your purpose statement to pierce a person right to the heart is for it to be a single rifle shot, well aimed. When you do that, you will inspire their passion, and your idea will be alive.

The What

Of course, a single rifle shot isn’t very effective if there’s no bullet in the chamber. The right ammunition is one part what and one part why.

Your purpose statement should state what your business is. Do not confuse this with stating all that your business does. Your business is almost certainly far more complex than any one sentence could describe, but the essence of what it really is must be a part of the purpose statement.

Many clever purpose statements only hint at what the business is, but they still hint. You want your purpose statement to entice people to want to know more. You can’t accomplish this by saying nothing. You can only accomplish this by saying enough to get them interested.

The Why

The why is your big, transcendental, inspiring reason for existing. The most effective purpose statements make people excited. Entrepreneurial ventures, particularly high-potential entrepreneurial ventures, are themselves exciting, high risk, high reward endeavors. If you are going to do something, it might as well be something spectacular. So for this moment, throw away modesty, caution, or humility and state the change your idea is going to make in the world.

Example Purpose Statements:

These are actual purpose statements listed by wildly successful companies you are likely familiar with:

Amazon: To build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.[6]

Dell: To be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.[7]

Facebook: To give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.[8]

Mint: To help people understand and do more with their money.[9]

Microsoft: To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.[10]

Pinterest: To connect everyone in the world through the “things” they find interesting.[11]

Skype: To be the fabric of real-time communication on the web.[12]

Yahoo: To be the most essential global Internet service for consumers and businesses.[13]

YouTube: To provide fast and easy video access and the ability to share videos frequently.[14]

What About You?

“Business opportunities are like buses there’s always another one coming.”

—Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group

So you’ve made a wonderful, concise, inspiring purpose statement that excites people. But is this the right purpose for you?

Startup ideas do not exist in a vacuum. They are not universally good or bad. It’s about fit. Everyone—your investor, your team, your partners, your family and friends, and even, one day, you—is going to wonder if you are the right person to pursue this business idea and purpose. We encourage you to do that soul-searching now, rather than later when you’ve already quit your job, mortgaged the house, and spent all of your and your family’s money.

Sometimes entrepreneurs have trouble letting go of what they see as really good opportunities even when they aren’t passionate about them. If the purpose doesn’t inspire you, stop now. Let go. It might be a good idea. But only a small portion good ideas ultimately become successful realities. A really good idea still might not be a really good idea for you.

Michael is the exception to most every entrepreneurial rule. He is the lightning in a bottle that investors die to capture. He’s a proven, successful serial entrepreneur. He’s turned multiple ideas into huge business realities. People come to Michael with ideas all the time. People ask Michael to run their businesses (for a great deal of money) or cofound their companies. People ask Michael to invest in their companies. But even Michael knows not to get involved in ideas that aren’t right for him. Michael passes on the vast majority of ideas.

He passes on bad ideas, good ideas, and great ideas. He only takes part in the right ideas. The right ideas are the ideas that match his skills and passions. He will be the first to admit he has passed on lots of really great ideas, ideas he knew were great when he passed on them, but he doesn’t regret it. They weren’t the right fit for him. They might be an excellent fit for someone else. If an idea shows promise, Michael will even connect the great idea to someone who might be right for it. But he won’t take it on himself.

Michael doesn’t freak out when he passes on these great ideas. He knows he would regret it if he started building something he isn’t completely passionate about, and he knows there will always be more ideas. Michael doesn’t even care if someone steals his ideas, because he knows he will out-execute his competition. As much as people love to focus on the idea, ultimately the execution will determine an idea’s fate, and execution takes work.

In the startup world, your work requires your heart, your mind, your body, and an awful lot of your spirit. If you have reservations but plow ahead, you will only wind up with regrets.

We recommend people considering an idea work through the following exercise as a last step, an “am I really going to do this?” gut check.

The Passion Exercise

Look at your life, and honestly assess the following:

• What are the top three things you are passionate about?
• What are the top three things that excite you?
• What are the top three things you enjoy doing?
• Where does the entrepreneurial mission you are considering fall in the lists above?
• If your entrepreneurial mission didn’t make the top three on the above lists: How far down would you have to go on each list to reach your business idea?
• If your entrepreneurial mission didn’t make the top three on the above lists: How does your business idea relate to your top three if it isn’t one of them?

It’s Not Competing against an Idea. It’s Competing against Every Idea.

When you are deciding to commit to an idea, remember you won’t just be giving up what you are already doing. You are also giving up future opportunities that might come along while you are pursuing the idea. If you can’t commit to just this idea, then it won’t make it, and you aren’t ready. You don’t have to make the commitment right now, but if you realize right now that you never could make the commitment, then you are wasting your time.

If you worked through the passion exercise and want to pursue your mission, we recommend you write down for yourself the answer to these questions to remind your future self, during the inevitable hard times, about why you set out on this course and were determined to see it through:

1. What are you willing to sacrifice for this mission?

2. Why are you willing to sacrifice it?

3. How long are you willing to sacrifice it?

References & Works Cited