Optimism as essential to entrepreneurship
In Inc. Magazine's 2004 piece on America's 25 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs, they highlight Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.
As Jeff puts it:
I've joked that in the case of Amazon.com, half of it was good timing, half of it was luck, and the rest of it was brains. And there's a lot of truth in that. The fact of the matter is, the odds are stacked against any start-up. Heavily so. There's a huge amount of luck and timing involved...
...I believe that optimism is an essential quality for doing anything hard--entrepreneurial endeavors or anything else.
While he refers to it as optimism, I think another phrase for it would be self-belief or confidence in being capable of doing something. Clearly, there are ups and downs during nearly all endeavors undertaken by man, but a preponderance of self-belief vs. self-doubt is required to accomplish most undertakings. As an amateur tennis player who disappears to televised matches of professional tennis' four major events each year, what separates the top players from the crowd (meaning the top 200 to 300 in the world) is their consistent ability to execute from a position of self-belief and confidence. You often hear the announcers talk about players that are struggling as having lost some of their confidence, or going out on the court without believing that they can win against a tough opponent.
I think that the same is true with entrepreneurship, with the added challenge that it is not a solo endeavor like tennis. You have to marshall and inspire others to your vision to be successful, including investors, employees, partners, customers, etc. And, at the same time, do this in the face of all the nay-sayers who, like Monday morning quarterbacks, can tell you a thousand reasons why it won't work.
Speaking of believing, yesterday, the upstart software company known as 37signals, announced that Jeff Bezos has made in investment in their young company through his personal investment company called Bezos Expeditions. From the 37signals announcement, it seems that they've found a like-minded soul who believes.