The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

May 13Everyone Pivots

The pilgrims were human beings. Otherwise they would have acted differently. They had come a long and difficult journey, and now when the journey was nearly finished, and they learned that the main thing they had come for had ceased to exist, they didn't do as horses or cats or angle-worms would probably have done—turn back and get at something profitable—no, anxious as they had before been to see the miraculous fountain, they were as much as forty times as anxious now to see the place where it had used to be. There is no accounting for human beings.

Mark Twain—A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)

And … there's no accounting for entrepreneurs, it seems.

Twain surely spent some time in Silicon Valley. What he's described in recounting the actions of the pilgrims is a classic pivot. You know the comical portrayal of the hoodie-wearing bros who proclaim, “Look, nobody wants what this, but we've got a great domain name and a killer logo so let's just pivot.”

Now before you think this is an attempt to cast shade on the idea, know this: self-reliant entrepreneurs always pivot.

It's become trendy in start-up circles to use the term “pivot” as though it was created in the last decade or so, but it simply implies that you should question everything—always—and ask if there's a better way to do it. Try, measure, learn is a universal truth in business, and your willingness to change your mind is what keeps you both committed to your dream and self-reliant. ...