Second-time Around

Ev has a post about second-time entrepreneurs which links to another article (Mr Gutman: Second-time entrepreneurs about how people who have been there and done it successfully motivate themselves.

Speaking as a relatively-successful-at-the-start-but-ultimately-failed entrepreneur, I’d have to say that the lessons learned are pretty much the same, but perhaps weighted in a different way. I don’t think it’s a case of people working smarter rather than harder, because I think you have to work smart and damn hard to make it work—but working hard doesn’t necessarily equate to long hours (that wouldn’t be very smart now, would it?). Working smart and hard is what a lot of the Web 2.0 companies are doing: less is more, agility (in all aspects), involving end-users from day one, all that jazz.

I’m still motivated to create something, whether on my own idea, or on an idea that I buy into. I don’t think I’ll ever drop out of the start-up lane. It’s too much fun! And even when it isn’t fun, I’d still rather be doing it than working as cog in a giant machine where I don’t have any impact whatsoever.