5 Things I Learned About Entrepreneurship

1. Genius is not enough.

There is no question that PG is highly intelligent. He holds a PhD from Harvard, still regularly writes his own code, works on the most challenging startup problems on a daily basis, and still finds the time to engage his popular Hacker News website. But he will also constantly remind you that good engineering and sharp problem solving skills are not enough. He’s openly discussed that his original thinking used to be IQ above all else when selecting YC teams. But when it comes to building a company from scratch, you need tenacity, allies, and the the ability to adapt plus IQ.

Why? Because every entrepreneur, no matter how brilliant, will face moments of discouragement, frustration, and even despair. It’s the guaranteed outcome of going off to do something others found too difficult. In our case, we went from nothing to a working product and back to nothing in less than a month during our time at Y Combinator. Our original concept didn’t solve a real problem, so we were forced to abandon it and start again. While we frantically scrapped one idea after another, PG calmly supported us and brainstormed a variety of ideas with us. He wasn’t ever discouraged, and he had a seemingly unlimited supply of practical ideas that could use a bit of technology.

The nature of taking on the difficult challenge of starting a company is that sometimes your best laid plans will be crushed. In fact, you should expect them to be crushed. That new feature you were about to unveil will have fatal flaws, or the business partnership you worked three months to develop will likely unravel. These kinds of things are constantly happening. Actually, if they stop happening, you’re probably done for. It’s how you respond that will ultimately define you as an entrepreneur. And that’s where your allies and your determination come in. The lows are too low to do it alone, and the dependency on others requires that you persist when the inertia of the outside world works aga...

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