Linear progress
jasonleow • 20 Apr 2025 •
A little reflection over the weekend:
If progress was linear in entrepreneurship, nobody would quit, everyone would be millionaires.
Because if it’s guaranteed that X amount of effort and time brought you Y amount of rewards and profit, then there’s no risk involved, no uncertainty to tame, no bets needed.
And it wouldn’t be called entrepreneurship.
Because it’s more to the left of the luck-skill spectrum.
But get this: If effort was not at least somewhat linear—or consistent—then you can forget about any progress at all, linear or exponential.
So non-linear things come from linear things, still.
Comments
@haideralmosawi Oh don’t get me wrong, by saying risk is synonymous with entrepreneurship, I’m not romanticizing it. I wish it can go away tbh, but it is what it is, and very much a big part of what makes it a less chosen path in mainstream consciousness… that it feels riskier compared to having a job
I think the core of what makes entrepreneurship entrepreneurship is NOT the risk involved, but allocating resources towards a profitable opportunity. BUT, since we don’t possess infallible knowledge, there’s undoubtedly luck involved. The point is that we can get more skilled at finding and capitalizing on the right opportunities.
I have a sensitivity about romanticizing the hard parts of entrepreneurship, which makes us go after the wrong things (namely, going after the hard parts because we think that’s what qualifies a pursuit to the status of “entrepreneurial”).