All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line

Chapter 24The Harder You Work, the Luckier You’ll Get

Something had changed about the tournament by Round 4. If the first three rounds had reminded Owen of Darwin’s Law and to stay out of the way, the fourth round, and seventh full day of poker, reminded him of the one time he’d raced a Formula 1 car. Like all men, Owen considered himself an expert driver and had jumped at the chance when his company sponsored a fun day at a track with F-1s. He had fun but also found the experience terrifying—everything was going so fast that there was virtually no time to react. Curves came up in a split second and you had to go from 150 to 75 mph in an instant. It was thrilling. It was exhilarating. And there was no room for error.

The poker hands were now going just as fast. The bets just as big, like the speedometer in the car, and there was no time to think. Owen had to slow it down. This wasn’t healthy. He had to think through his decisions and evaluate his odds at each turn.

As he tried to evaluate an early hand, he thought about how fast life at ReBicycle had seemed these past few months. He was no longer the calm, organized professional who had started the company what seemed like years ago. Once he figured out that ReBicycle wasn’t performing anywhere close to his financial projections, Owen frantically tried anything he could to get back on track. But the money he spent on marketing gimmicks, PR campaigns, and web site redesigns wasn’t producing any noticeable results. He was just ...