The curse of the trophy startup

no man’s land

noun

The general version

an indeterminate or undefined place or state.

The military version

disputed ground between the front lines or trenches of two opposing armies.

The ENTREPRENEUR version

the place in space/time where an entrepreneur is stuck (quite unproductively) in search for the elusive trophy startup to found.

So what is a trophy startup? it is..

• the three comma club one

• the one that unleashes the future upon humanity

• the ‘web scale’ one

• the one for the good of humanity

• the one that makes you a hero/villain

And so on.

Maybe I’m in no man’s land. Maybe I’m out. I’d like to be out of it of course (I’ve been trying). And don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking down on being ambitious. I’m talking explicitly about the unproductive waste of time that tends to be spent on thinking about grandiose plans.

So here’s my philosophy to break the curse

Just DO IT!

hmm.

Ok that might be taken.

Let’s try again.

Impossible is nothing.

YEAH!!

oh. That’s taken too.

Don’t try to steer the river.

Ok. Now I’m just kidding with you. But Mr. Deepak Chopra is not. He’s a funny guy. Or maybe he’s an alien and I don’t understand what the f**k he’s talking about. Actually, more plausibly, he’s a bot.

Anyway, I think all the good philosophies are taken. And I’ve wasted enough time _not_ making a point. I’ll just go back to work.

Edit

A friend just told me about Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel and supermodel Miranda Kerr. Hence this deserves to be added to the attributes of a trophy startup, perhaps the most desired one of all

• the one that get’s you the trophy wife (or girlfriend / boyfriend)