Burn Your Boats!

Cortes actually sunk his boats but the reminder of burning the boats and moving forward still remains. The counter to this is the "Wing Walker" Rule' do not let go of something until you have a firm hold of something else. The problem in a start up is the latter and not the former. In the many companies I have done, "Burn your boats" is essential. It is akin to joining a religious order, you have one loyalty, to the new company.

Now in contrast I just read an MIT piece praising those who stay at MIT and also start a company. Frankly it violates the "Burn your boats" mantra. In fact, unless you are consulting or a Board member it is in violent contradiction to what is necessary. You are either one or the other.

The MIT piece says:

Not only is it possible to found one’s first company while at MIT, says Bill Aulet SM ’94 — it’s ideal. Aulet is co-director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, along with MIT Sloan faculty member and Innovation Initiative co-director Fiona Murray. Founded in 1990 by Professor Edward Roberts, the Trust Center provides the expertise, support, and connections MIT students need to become effective entrepreneurs — including an extremely popular start-up accelerator capstone program and access to a rotating roster of entrepreneurs in residence. Up-and-coming founders can also avail themselves of the center’s workspace, which is equipped with such essentials as videoconferencing systems and floor-to-ceiling dry-erase walls.

Frankly dry-erase walls is the last thing one needs. A start up need focus and leadership, and execution, not a nice room. The article continues:

“When I say our students shouldn’t drop out of school to found a company, people always bring up Mark Zuckerberg. Well, you know what — that’s like saying Lebron James didn’t go to college, so you don’t need to. Some people are extreme cases. What about the MIT alumni who cofounded Qualcomm [Irwin Jacobs SM '57, SCD '59 and Andrew Viterbi '56, SM '57]? Their education at MIT gave them the foundation to start that company, not just in technology and engineering and math and science, but also in this carbon-based life form called humans. How do you communicate with people? How do you get along with people?

 Andy and Irwin did the start up at a totally different time. This is a strange and contradictory statement. I was there, Irwin was my Faculty Advisor and we worked together while he had Linkabit and I provide funding for Qualcomm when at NYNEX. The facts contradict what he says. They burned their boats and left academia to do the Qualcomm deal, again I was there.

Thus this article does a great dis-service in my opinion. MIT is a fantastic training ground for technology, and now gives some exposure to business.

But, and this is key, I am reminded by a statement by my students a few years back, "We did not know a MIT PhD could run a company?" My response, "Do I look like chopped liver!" They thought you needed some MBA or attorney from Harvard. You hire them, they do not employ you! But you must be ready to "Burn your boats". You must leave academia, and move forward. Beware quasi-academics who seem to be justifying their existence. The only way to learn how to be an entrepreneur is to do it. I guess it is kind of like sex.