Fragile Is Not the Same as Doomed

Early startups are fragile, and observers (and founders themselves) mistake fragility for doom. They judge an embryo by the standards of a grown company.

The right question is never 'is this taking over the world?' but 'how big could this get if the founders execute well?' Even Bill Gates initially went back to Harvard after starting Microsoft.

For Airbnb, about 30 days of intense in-person hustle in New York was the difference between success and failure. The unscalable work looks laborious and trivial in the moment; in hindsight it was everything.