Today's Wall Street Journal featured Yogi Berra's response to watching the movie "Moneyball". Reporter Jason Gay notes that during the discussion following the movie, this scene took place:
Of course, there are his famous Yogi-isms, jumbled koans which will live forever. Halfway through dinner, a woman in a black coat sweeps over to the table and leans into Yogi.
"Excuse me, could I be very rude and say hello?" she asks. "I'm an international opera singer and we use 'It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings' at least once a week, and I think of you every time."
Yogi smiles.
"For clarification, he didn't say that one," David Kaplan interjects. "Yogi said, 'It ain't over 'til it's over.'
"Oooh—well, I love that one too!"
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I find the veterans of new enterprises chant the mantra, "It ain't over 'til it's over."
They have found that keeps them focused on a final victory during the month after month slog of morphing from first idea to First To Get It Right.
It sure gets discouraging at times for entrepreneurs. There is so much action in every new space, it arrives so swiftly, that new markets look like (as I emailed a serial founder last week) "The new space has been carpet-bombed!".
That means a couple of dozen startups (prior to yours) have been attempting to "go viral", to "scale", to finally get repeated use of their app/product/service. And yours has to stand out in order to attract the resouces it requires to become The Gorilla of the new space.
"At last, we have momentum on our side!" is what the startup veterans all focus on. That is the name of the game, because when that happens, the energy builds on itself, your Great Thing is eagerly sought by customers, and you shift from hard selling, to furiously taking large orders. You are then "In the tornado", being propelled higher and higher.
But to get there you have to have a special mix of courage, determination, innovation and wisdom.
Yes, there are often moments when it is best to throw in the towel, shut the business down and start over with a new idea.
More likely, you will be challenged by the milling herd of new enterprises in your new space, stimulated to figure out how to morph your latest version of your idea into the one that "takes off" at last.
This process is very difficult to go through. The pain is unavoidable. Like the butterfly that must struggle out of its chrysalis to get strong wings so it can fly away in all its majestic beauty, so you too will have to go through it all.
So while that transpires, remember the wisdom from a very successful coach of very talented people, "It ain't over 'til it's over".
BOTTOM LINE: Startup CEOs learn they must go through a very difficult process to move from first idea to the winner's podium. While you go through that, recall the Yogi-ism, "It ain't over 'til it's over." Serial entrepreneurs know what that is about. When you do, you'll be well on your way to building a powerful unfair advantage.
I wish you The Best on your Adventure!
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