[JaumeGreen]

> The problem is that there are so many blatant counterexamples and contradictory narratives that the advice ceases to be helpful.

Because there's no set of instructions that will work for sure.

What one needs to success with a startup is several of these: work hard, work smart, connections, piles of money, idea, marketing, good timing and luck.

You can have most of them and not triumf, you can have only a pair and succeed. With none it's not possible. The ones that seem to matter the most are the ones you come with (money/connections) and the ones that you can't affect much (good timing/luck).

[ryanwaggoner]

This is a great comment.

I’m not sure marketing belongs in the list though. It’s critical but it’s a part of execution and overlaps with several other items on the list. Just stood out to me.

I’d also challenge the last paragraph. I don’t think anything on this list matters as much as working hard. Literally every single successful business owner I’ve ever known has worked their ass off, usually for many years. For me the correlation is 100%. That’s not to say it’s sufficient but it seems necessary and the most equalizing force on your list [1]

1. Although I sometimes think in our fetishization of hard work, we ignore the fact that not everyone can grind away for years on a speculative venture even if they wanted to. I know many wonderful people who just don’t have that personality. Telling them to “outwork their competition” makes as much sense as telling someone to change their favorite color or decide to love a food they hate. It’s just not how they’re wired and that’s OK.

[JaumeGreen]

IMHO working hard (or sometimes just working smart) is a prerequisite for a startup to be great. But it's one of the things that matter less.

There are plenty of people working as hard as they can, that doesn't mean their starup will work out. They might be working on the wrong problem, they might have bad sales/virality, they might be doing a great product but too soon/late for the market, someone bigger might be fighting for the same market, they might just be unlucky.

Without the hard work there is no startup, for sure. But fetishizing it leads to the whole "you were not working enough/you didn't want it enough" toxic concept of people only getting what they deserve. Life is not fair, good people have bad things happen to them from time to time, bad people sometimes have good things happen to them, hard working people don't always succeed.