THE MYTH of the overnight success:

Angry Birds was Rovio’s 52nd game. They spent eight years and almost went bankrupt before finally creating their massive hit. Pinterest is one of the fastest growing websites in history, but struggled for a long time. Pinterest’s CEO recently said that they had “catastrophically small numbers” in their first year after launch, and that if he had listened to popular startup advice he probably would have quit.

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UPDATE. And another related myth: that startup and entrepreneurial success is a monopoly of young people, like Mark Zuckerberg.