This is The Biggest Lie Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves (tm).
You hear about the fact that only 10% of startups succeed, but you tell yourself "I'm better than them". pg himself reinforces this notion by saying things like "some founders have a 0% chance of success, others a 95% chance".
pg is right, in a sense, but there is very little way for you to know whether you really are "better" than others. Very few people actually know what makes a startup successful, so there's that. On top of which, the people who are taken into account in the 10% statistic includes, among others, people who are building their 5th startup, the sons of highly influential politicians, personal friends of movie actors, etc. It includes people 30 years in a particular industry, with tons of insider knowledge, who decided to build a product in that industry. And it includes other 21 year olds with stars in their eyes, and nothing more.
This isn't to say "don't build a startup". That's a different conversation, and depends a lot on your goals in life.
But most people are in the startup game at least partially for the money. And for the purposes of calculating your potential earnings, unless you have a good reason why you're special, pay attention to the damn statistics!
You hear about the fact that only 10% of startups succeed, but you tell yourself "I'm better than them". pg himself reinforces this notion by saying things like "some founders have a 0% chance of success, others a 95% chance".
pg is right, in a sense, but there is very little way for you to know whether you really are "better" than others. Very few people actually know what makes a startup successful, so there's that. On top of which, the people who are taken into account in the 10% statistic includes, among others, people who are building their 5th startup, the sons of highly influential politicians, personal friends of movie actors, etc. It includes people 30 years in a particular industry, with tons of insider knowledge, who decided to build a product in that industry. And it includes other 21 year olds with stars in their eyes, and nothing more.
This isn't to say "don't build a startup". That's a different conversation, and depends a lot on your goals in life.
But most people are in the startup game at least partially for the money. And for the purposes of calculating your potential earnings, unless you have a good reason why you're special, pay attention to the damn statistics!