Morale and Perseverance

In my other incarnation as an I.T. person, I read Joel Spolsky's occasional articles about his company, Fog Creek Software. Today's was about why startups fail.

Spolsky quotes Paul Graham: '"The biggest reason founders stop working on their start-ups is that they get demoralized," he writes. "Some people seem to have unlimited self-generated morale. These almost always succeed. At the other extreme, there are people who seem to have no ability to do this; they need a boss to motivate them. In the middle there is a large band of people who have some, but not unlimited, ability to motivate themselves. These can succeed through careful morale management (and some luck)."'

The parallels with writing are obvious. Similar questions occur to me. Is it possible for a start-up to succeed with a bad business? Is it possible for a writer to succeed with a bad book?

The answer in both cases is probably: sometimes, but you're making it a LOT harder for yourself.

The reason why would-be entrepreneurs lose morale and abandon their business is probably the same reason why would-be writers throw in the towel. Things aren't working out, and they conclude that they have a bad business. Or a bad book.