[gumby]

Years ago someone said to me, "Luck happens to those who let it." It's stuck with me, because I think it's so true. In fact it's what makes Napoleon's famous (and probably apocryphal) statement actionable: "When I choose Generals I prefer the lucky ones."

I've started large companies and tiny / failed ones; although I look back at my own execution problems for the ones that didn't make it, I recognize that the ones that succeeded were lucky, and we were just lucky enough to be able to take advantage of that luck.

For example: - tons of cold calls and regular sales calls until we accidentally signed up the right kinds of customers - having some customers who told us how we should be running our business, and being smart enough to listen to them - recognizing at one point, "hey, we're making all our money from customers who ask for Y, why do we think our business is X?" (i.e. what hipsters these days call a "pivot")

etc

I love the ones who think they're badass -- they're too busy being badass to slog through the mire and get to the mountain.

[jbhatab]

I understand where you are coming from, but you should also acknowledge the other side of ego too. Ego can fuel people to become their vision of themselves and people with egos tend to have a hard working self image.

I'm not saying ego is good, because it can take you down if not managed. But to say that there are no positives is a little bit extreme.

[gumby]

> "people with egos tend to have a hard working self image"

I guess I haven't seen this much! Yes, if you're a shrinking violet and can't put yourself out there you will have a hard time succeeding in almost any domain, but the ability to do so can be learned.

In my experience, when someone says "ego" it usually means "asshole".

[ryancarson]

> the ones that succeeded were lucky, and we were just lucky enough to be able to take advantage of that luck.

Amen. Amen.

I'd love to hear more about your past adventures. What were the large companies and the failed/tiny ones?

[gumby]

Well Cygnus was pretty big and pioneered the free software business model, forking, and a whole bunch of things like that. TLGnet was one of the very first ISPs.

I also did an enterprise DB company, Zembu, that pretty much sank without a trace (the tech ended up in DB2). I made a drug at Talima that is still in trials so who knows? Terrajoule.... well the jury is out.

And castAR I plan will be huge!

You can see some background by looking me up on Linkedin: D. Henkel-Wallace. I should resurrect my Wikipedia page.