A lot of people all over the world start businesses all of the time. For most of them, this is a process which is fraught with the potential risks of going bankrupt and having nothing to show for it, while future employers make a silent mockery of their time spent as an “entrepreneur.” The path of the entrepreneur is frequently a path of being ridiculed, and tortured by all of the different possibilities that might have been if only things had been a little bit different. Fortunately, there are places where entrepreneurship and innovation are prized, such as Silicon Valley. However, in the Valley things are a little bit skewed, compared to what they are like in much of the world. The concepts that a lot of these budding entrepreneurs bring about are often tinged with a focus on the wrong kinds of metrics, and there is a definite tendency toward an overly present oriented focus to much of it.
Silicon Valley is plagued with the belief that once you generate a buzz with people, that customers are simply going to leap out of the woodwork and work with you. This is supposedly accomplished through the same magic which dictates that if you build it, they will come. While this is certainly a lovely and positive sentiment for an entrepreneur to keep, it is too positive. It basically assumes that once you have a good product, the marketing will take care of itself. This is a starving artist mindset that is the death of many a good idea.
Another way that the Valley is skewed is in its over reliance on funding for startups. A successful business can often be self financed by a determined entrepreneur, whereas a business that is dependent on investor funding is often a money pit. After all, why would you need to generate revenue, when all you have to do is sell your idea to the latest round of financiers to stay afloat and draw the fat paycheck of an executive. Relying on revenue is a far more sustainable way to build a great business.