TLDR:
- If The Average Joe is beginning a startup but doesn’t make an effort to put the reps in or hone certain skills they may have a natural aptitude for, they’ll continue to remain average. You can wager that a lot of the failed startups were started by such people.
- Discipline is nonexistent. As As Paul Graham says, finding the work you love usually requires discipline. If you’re short-fused, you won’t ever either find that, nor learn how to not suck at it.
- Times change, people change. To remain successful, you need a timeless mindset. Adapt with the times and the changes in tastes and preferences of consumers. You don’t want to become the relic that goes viral a decade later because of a retro YouTuber reminiscing “what could’ve been.”
- These people realize that entrepreneurship simply isn’t for them, and find better opportunities elsewhere.
- Cash is king as they say. You’ll need it at some point, if not at the beginning then certainly at a junction where you’ve reached sustainable success and can’t maintain it without money for the necessary resources.
The formulation of an overwhelming majority
According to a Forbes article published in 2015, 90% of startups fail.
Nearly 9 years later, it still holds as per an article from The Hustle.
So why is this the case?
1. The Average Joe
The Average Joe archetype is average at everything, as you’d imagine.
If they’re trying to immerse themselves in the entrepreneurial world but don’t make an effort to put the reps in consistently or hone certain skills they may have a natural aptitude for, then they’ll remain stagnant, continuing to be average at everything.
Though there probably isn’t exact data available for what percentages of failed startups were started by individuals who theoretically qualify for this archetype, it’d be a safe bet to assume that the vast composition of this percentage is such people.
2. Lack of Discipline
As Paul Graham says, finding the work you love usually requires discipline.
If you’re too impatient and don’t stick at it long enough, not only would you not ever find the work you love, but you won’t ever learn how to not suck at them either.
As mentioned in the previous section, you have to put the reps in. It creates discipline. If you have no discipline, then how can you ever expect to remotely stand a chance in the first place?
3. Inadaptability
Times change, people change as they say.
If you’ve learned how to function but are incapable of adapting to recent trends or changes in the tastes and preferences of consumers, then you’ll be long forgotten.
You’re just asking to become a relic of the past that a YouTuber over a decade later will cash in on just by talking about “remember X and how popular they used to be back in YYYY? here’s what happened to them.”
In a way, it’s like the reverse Dunning-Kruger effect. No, your idea won’t be timeless if it’s completely inflexible. Some people can start a new business relatively quickly and become self-sustaining.
4. Opportunities
Some may realize after several failures that entrepreneurship simply isn’t for them, and disengage from this world. Instead, they land better opportunities elsewhere, in sectors they’re a natural at.
5. Capital
The reality is that having some money is the most important thing, if not necessarily right at the beginning, but at a certain point later in the journey when you’ve had some degree of sustainable success, which to maintain you need to expand your resources, something which can only be done with capital.
Either people don’t have it or just neglect it.
It is pertinent to understand costs, and be able to cover them so you can fire all cylinders, the most important thing for business success.
That’s a basic understanding as to why 90% of startups fail.