Apr
15
In Marc Andreessen’s post, he says the following:
“If Thomas Edison didn’t know what he had when he invented the phonograph while he thought he was trying to create better industrial equipment for telegraph operators…
…what are the odds that you — or any entrepreneur — is going to have it all figured out up front?”
Yet we jam into people’s heads that before they start a business they have to have everything well laid out in business plan. This truly makes no sense for a number of reasons, but I will not delve into them here.
The meat of this post is this: The Burton D. Morgan business plan competition has been in existence for over 21 years now. Where the hell are all the “startups” that win these competitions? Clearly the winners had phenomenal business plans. So what the hell are they doing?!? One reasonable conclusion someone can draw is that their disappearance into the oblivion had NOTHING to do with their business plan. It’s almost as if the winners of the Burton D. Morgan competitions fall into a black hole never to return.
If you’re among the new winners of the latest Burton D. Morgan competition, control your destiny and do not fall victim to the curse. In my humble opinion, the best way to beat the curse is to execute, execute, execute. And when you get tired, execute some more.
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2 Responses to “The Burton D. Morgan Curse: More Reasons Why Initial B-Plans Don’t Matter”
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I agree that a fundamental problem is poor execution of plans but do you think that is the main problem with the winners or the fact that they simply do not want to move on with their award-winning ideas?
I had a brief conversation with the new director of BDM this past Monday, Ken Kahn. He intends to have a summer intern “look into” what’s happened to past winners. We’ll see how public the results are. Hank