Hacker News Reader

Never give up. But know when to change directions. You don't want to keep banging your head against a wall.

Bad ideas can be salvaged with good work ethic and execution. But make sure that you have the right idea before you start your march forward.

View on HN

I think this point is overlooked by the article. There is a little too much of the "Little Engine that Could" which tends to encourage entrepreneurs to ignore disconfirming data from prospects. For me, the key point is to decide what failure looks like before you start (and unexpected success, which for an entrepreneur signals that a product deserves more investment, potentially even third party investment in addition to re-directed internal resources) so that you know when to quit. I blogged about this in more detail (and with some good but long quotes from Peter Drucker) here: http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/05/25/seth-godins-book-the...

I agree but trying to pin down what disconfirming data actually constitutes is very difficult. I like the idea though of deciding beforehand (probably when you are thinking most clearly) how you will define failure or success.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com