In response to this article.

The overall point of the author’s post is correct, basically: have lots of ideas (90% of them are shit anyway), get used to failing, and suck it up, asshole! I’m just against the romantic idea of “accidental entrepreneurs” — it’s a poor choice of words to describe the reality of the process.

Everything the author describes doesn’t seem accidental to me. Examples cited include Groupon’s transformation from a charity fundraising site to a now publicly listed group-buying site, and Twitter’s transformation from a failed podcast aggregator (called Odeo) to the now ubiquitous communication tool.

I believe these shifts happen more deliberately and painfully than we are led to believe in watered-down versions of the events we hear in the media. I think it’s more likely that Groupon and Twitter were thinking early on:

or

or simply

People don’t just stumble upon game-changing ideas, they stem from desperation to survive and succeed or risk becoming another grave in the Startup Graveyard. Without the desperation for survival or success, Groupon and Twitter would disappear into the startup ether the way they started, like that little fundraising site and that little podcast aggregator.

The desire to survive, to succeed, and the willingness to fail many times sounds far from accidental. To me, this describes a more deliberate behavior that is hungrier or more stubborn than accidental.

The idea of an Accidental Entrepreneur appeals to the lazy bastards in all of us. Accidents show that if we continue to indulge in nonsensical ideas, eventually we will stumble upon something wonderful and turn it into our own pot of gold. This is not how a startup pivot, and it is not how you become successful. Take the author’s advice – none of this is accidental, it’s all well thought out, proactive and self-preserving.

Summary: Don’t be a pervert, stop fantasizing about accidents!

Be a hungry, stubborn entrepreneur.