I have 6 great books that I’ll most likely never write. I’m facing my own laziness.

One of my many business books is about why startups fail. Since I’ll probably never write that one either, I figured I’d start forcing myself to do it the lazy way – via this blog.

Here’s the poop: Over the last 10+ years in this business, I’ve tracked (some much more closely than others) about 1,000 companies. Most of those were startups. Most of those are gone. Prior to ESG, I spent the previous 12+ years in various companies as an employee and as a founder. Some of the places I’ve worked have hit spectacular heights (EMC) while others have blandly moved along and even more have died.

There are 1000 books on how companies succeed and how they fail. There are management books on every nook and cranny, but I haven’t found many that really help the entrepreneur. I think Blue Ocean Strategy and Crossing the Chasm are fantastic – mostly because they are focused on some practical realities that, once you read, they make you say “duh, that makes sense.” That’s useful.

I’m not that smart, but I am observant (in business, not in anything relevant to my wife – I’m blind and clueless in most things in that regard). I’m also fortunate enough to have piles of data. You don’t have to be an idiot savant to pattern match if you have the right data.

So, I’m going to start spitting out (in no specific order) things that, while obvious to some, cause stupendous problems for many. I would love your commentary, thoughts, and, by all means – your ideas on other things that make perfectly well intended startups go the way of the dodo.

Fail Factor #1 – Zealotry

A zealot is someone who believes so strongly in what it is they are doing that it is all consuming for them, and it becomes contagious. In a world dominated by followers, a zealot stands out. Anyone who believes anything so strongly will stand apart from the wishy washy masses – be they religious, political, technological, or any other kind of zealot.

When political or religious, society can easily dismiss the zealot as a radical or lunatic. When the zealot lives in technology, they get funded.

Often, it takes the perserverence and unfettered self-belief of a zealot to get a startup off the ground and funded. Sometimes, the zealot can use their uncompromising belief in themselves or their purpose to lift their organizations to huge heights, but more often than not, it is that very same zealotry that kills them.

I’m a huge fan of the entrepreneur, inventor, developer, etc. having absolute belief in what they are doing. It’s been rare in my experience where a true startup zealot goes unfunded. It happens, but usually because of extreme unforeseen environmental conditions (like when the global economy melts down and VC’s have lost 90% of ther portfolio value). So the positive lesson here is that zealots get funded. If you want money, best to rise above the unwashed masses, be noticed, and let your beliefs leak out of your pores in front of wishy-washy lemming VCs with piles of dough.

History is littered with companies with good ideas, perhaps even great ideas, and the ability to execute on those ideas – that don’t get funded. Zealotry is the X-factor when it comes to getting a startup funded. If you have it, your odds are much higher than if you don’t, simple as that. Zealotry works when raising money – but not when growing and sustaining a company.

Entrepreneurs often confuse raising money from VCs with absolute validation that they are right. That is a fatal mistake. VCs are gamblers – if they knew you were right, they would join the company. They don’t know if you are right, so they spread some dough around to cover the board. Getting VC money means you excited them. You excited them because you are a zealot. It has NOTHING to do with being right.

A VC wants the return that happens when a company succeeds – but they make bets on zealots. The zealot uses the funding success as proof that they are right – often closing whatever small crack existed for the zealot to accept external inputs and change. Bad recipe.

For those who do get funded, the zealot can help motivate and carry a company early on. They can inspire and motivate to impossible levels. People believe in others who believe in something so strongly that they can’t conceive of any way that their thinking can possibly be wrong.

That’s what kills them. By their very nature, the thing that for some period makes a zealot successful, ultimately leads to their demise.

Zealots don’t leave wiggle room. Their way is the only way. They firmly believe (and by default make everyone around them believe) that whatever thing they have in their brain is the only possible way to succeed. While they may be right, they are blind. They are blind to their surroundings – they are blind to change. The zealot succeeds by never changing their approach or their mind – which is also why they fail.

The zealot is so immersed in the belief that they are right that they can’t adapt to situational change. In a static world, the zealot would reign forever. In a dynamic world, the zealot will implode – it’s only a matter of time.

You can start a business with zealotry, but you can’t sustain one. Passion yes, zealotry no. Passion leaves wiggle room to adapt – zealotry leaves none. Even arrogance leaves cracks. You can be an arrogant jerk, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily actually BELIEVE your own bullshit. The zealot believes. The zealot knows.

Have you noticed that many of the stupidly funded companies – the ones that raised $100M bucks or so – are the ones with truly excellent zealots? You can’t raise that kind of money without having one. Have you also noticed that they almost always are written off for IP table scraps? Same reason. Remember Cereva? Incipient? Scale-8? Nishan? Giant Loop?

Even in well oiled successful machines, the zealot will eventually crumble under the weight of their own beliefs. Moshe Yanai, one of the most brilliant minds ever in the IT business, fathered the Symmetrix at EMC. It was wildly successful for many years (still is). He was so consumed with the Symm, that anything that wasn’t a Symm was somehow bad. If Joe Tucci didn’t eliminate Moshe, EMC would never have sold any CLARiiON – now a huge piece of their business. The zealot wants to change the world to sustain their beliefs. The truly smart business person adapts their actions (and sometimes their beliefs) to sustain their world.

The moral? Believe in yourself 99%. Believe in your mission 99%. Always leave yourself 1% open to change. The zealot is rarely, if ever, successful forever. The passionate person able to adapt to new realities – even when they fly in the face of what they believe – is the sustainable mental model necessary for long-term success.

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