[jbigelow]

"I'm talking about more intangible assets like skills, reputation, relationships, attention & fame."

When you separate reputation from attention & fame is there any real value there, at least in the context of startups? I get reputation as it relates to something like stackoverflow, but the attention & fame may not be as great an asset as the author seems to think. When I think of fame & attention without reputation I think of Lindsay Lohan and the cast of Jersey Shore. He could be talking about attention & fame like that that color.com received with their $41 million in funding but that is an extreme outlier and a lot of the community views it more as infamy.

[Sakes]

I think you are getting lost in the details. He is not saying that anyone of these things is a silver bullet. He is saying increase your value in 2, 3 or more of these categories, and you will increase your chances for success.

He is not even saying this is a complete list of intangible assets. These are just some examples of ways to get you closer to the finish line.

[shalmanese]

I would say "increase your chance of success" is less accurate than "open up new spaces in which you can be successful".

But, otherwise, yes, I agree with you.

[macrael]

Some are famous for bad reasons, but many are famous because they are great. Fame gives you the ability to direct many people's attention where you like, which seems pretty valuable to me, no matter what you do.