The start-up scene is all about dancing. Doing isn’t sexy. You can’t do at a drinks reception. You can only dance.
Dancing is yapping about what you’re going to do. It’s giving you and your business partner sweet titles. It’s printing impressive business cards. It’s an incorporation party. [1] It’s celebrating the closure of an investment round. It’s “connecting”! It’s staffing-up. It’s TechCrunch. It’s a pretty conservative yet exciting set of financial projections! It’s an awesome holding page for an awesome stealth product. It’s a stellar advisory board. It’s entering start-up competitions! It’s a press release sent to any prick that’ll put your name in print.
Doing is coding. It’s selling. It’s revenue. It’s loss and profit. It’s failure and success. It’s stress. It’s joy. It’s responsibility. It’s working late and hard. It’s learning something about your strengths and weaknesses and those of your business. It’s progress. It’s the only thing worth starting a start-up for.
If you really must dance, make sure you do first.
[1] I was actually at one of these. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like: they held a party to mark the registration of their company. I enjoyed the wine.
12 Comments
Ha ha! That second paragraph cracked me up. Good points!
I have a question though: where would you place blogging about the theory / basics your app rests upon, getting it attention but eating away valuable time from coding. Do or dance?
Dan
@DanielStocker
Posted by Dan Stocker at 4:23 pm on 9 February, 2010.
Touché! Des asked me the same, Dan. I said “if you really must dance, make sure you do first” and today has been a pretty productive day for me so far.
Thanks for the comment.
Posted by Eoghan McCabe at 4:27 pm on 9 February, 2010.
Does a /mediocre/ holding page for an awesome stealth product count?
Posted by James Pearce at 4:41 pm on 9 February, 2010.
This is a great post. So many people in Ireland spouting crap on the whole web / social media next big thing.
Talk about it when it is done
Posted by Stephen O'Reilly at 6:15 pm on 9 February, 2010.
I’m a good coder but a terrible dancer.
Posted by Matt Finucane at 7:11 pm on 9 February, 2010.
Agree. And I prefer doing than dancing.
Posted by Marc-Andre at 7:34 pm on 9 February, 2010.
Funny you mention that relation between doing and dancing.
A decade ago, while I was dancing at a party I suddenly came to the realisation that I had nothing to celebrate, and that dancing for the sake of dancing wasn’t going to do anything.
So since then, I make sure that when I party, when I dance, I do it cause I am celebrating all I have done.
I don’t care about awards or recognition, at least not from just anybody.
Only from those who do critically, and dance funky!
Posted by Angel Luis Gonzalez at 11:48 pm on 9 February, 2010.
Saaaweeet post Eoghan.
I think “yapping about what you’re going to do” can be a real motivator, depending on the people involved…
I remember about three years ago, when we first met, we had a Guinness in The Morrison (of all places). You were full of plans and ideas and enthusiasm. I was like… “who the fuck is this kid?” Heh ;-D
You yapped and yapped, and so did I. Over the course of the following few months we yapped some more. Then somewhere along the line, don’t really know when, we started erm… doing.
Anyway, joking aside, I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment of your post. At the end of the day you’re either gonna follow through on what you talk about or you’re not.
Posted by Eamon Leonard at 7:27 pm on 10 February, 2010.
Guys, you are now getting noticed around the young business scene in the UK as well: keep getting these messages out there - clear idea, hard work, customer connection, low bullshit and zero grandstanding, strong execution, etc. I worked in equity funding in Ireland for a decade: the “dance scence” there was always Dublin 1 and Dublin 4 preening and posturing around just how fashionable and clever the “entrepreneurs” were. In the UK the “dance scence” has developed around the likes of Dragons Den and travelling funding roadshows that have grown in its wake: it’s just another flashy distraction from the core requirements of talent, application and sheer persistence. Keep it up - great observations. Malcolm Evans, The Cultureship Practice, Manchester.
Posted by Corporate Culture at 5:17 pm on 12 February, 2010.
How you find out about these “incorporation parties”? I could use some free wine and a break from all this coding.
Posted by Kevin Webber at 7:59 am on 14 February, 2010.
I put it all down to a fear of failure. If you don’t ‘do’ then you can’t fail.
Posted by Caelen at 3:14 pm on 15 February, 2010.
Just don’t forget to dance to one song and one song only
(Blades of Glory)
Funny article.
Posted by Vunky at 9:49 am on 16 February, 2010.