Building the right product requires systematically and relentlessly testing that vision to discover which elements of it are brilliant, and which are crazy.
Interpretation
Creating a successful product involves continuous testing and validation of ideas to separate the valuable from the impractical.
The quote emphasizes the importance of iterative testing in the development of a product. It underscores that a successful product is not only built on a strong vision but also on the rigorous process of evaluating its components to identify what truly works and what doesn't, which can often involve rejecting the less viable ideas.
In practice
In a startup meeting to motivate the team to embrace the testing process.
There's nothing wrong with raising venture capital. Many lean startups are ambitious and are able to deploy large amounts of capital. What differentiates them is their disciplined approach to determining when to spend money: after the fundamental elements of the business model have been empirically validated.
A lot of entrepreneurs hate big companies. But if you hate them so much, why are you trying to build a new one? The truth is, as soon as a startup has any kind of success whatsoever, it will face big company problems.
The grim reality is that most start-ups fail. Most new products are not successful. Yet the story of perseverance, creative genius, and hard work persists.
The reality is the Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Lean startups waste less money, because they use a disciplined approach to testing new products and ideas.
You get a culture of entrepreneurship after you have successfully changed the accountability system so that people can use a better process. Process drives culture, not the other way around, so you can't just change the culture, you have to change the system.
Learning to see waste and systematically eliminate it has allowed lean companies such as Toyota to dominate entire industries. Lean thinking defines value as 'providing benefit to the customer'; anything else is waste.
Anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur like someone else is actually looking in the wrong direction. You don't look out for inspiration, you look in. You have to ask yourself how can I be better today, at solving the problem I am trying to solve for my company. I wouldn't encourage anyone to be like me. Just be like you.
One must pass through the circumference of time before arriving at the center of opportunity.
In this world, the greatest rewards of success, wealth and happiness are usually obtained not through the exercise of special powers such a genius or intellect but through one's energetic use of simple means and ordinary qualities.
I want people to remember that greatness is not a sports term. It's a life term.
Most people don't have so much talent that they can become a success all their own. We all need people to help us and lift us up.
When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.
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