There are a handful of books I read out of their spine as a child. The Hobbit. A Walk Across America. Undaunted Courage. Treasure Island. Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The Tripod Trilogy. Knights of the Round Table. A few movies fit the same bill. Goonies. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Indiana Jones. Tombstone. Labyrinth. The Neverending Story.

I was filled with stories of adventure in the face of impossible odds. My wife and I have spent our married life starting institutions that we were told couldn’t be started. Three are non-profits that are still serving their mission to this day.

Starting any institution or company is more like the against all odds adventure stories than anything I’ve read in the countless business startup books that line my shelves.

The odds are stacked against you (90% of startups fail, 82% in the first year). Everyone else thinks you should play it safe (like Bilbo in the Shire). Even if people don’t want you to fail, most of them can’t (or won’t) help. Many who start the journey with you won’t finish it with you. The dangers are way worse than you expected when you started. Most of the time the goal becomes ‘just survive.’ The map you start with  marks the goals but not the dangers. And from within the adventure you really are just trying to figure out where the next step is to stay on the path.

Loor is at the part of the story where the wall closes behind you and, as your eyes adjust, you see you are surrounded by the skeletons of the people that died on this adventure. (We’ve learned of multiple companies that tried to do what we are doing and failed). There are two responses. You can be the pretty blond that screams and wants to go back, or you can risk becoming the next skeleton by pressing forward.

To the adventurer with eyes to see, the impaled skeleton is a sign you’re on the right track. As long as you don’t die.

But staying encouraged when you’re in the dark cave surrounded by skeletons, hungry, cold, thirsty and scarred, and the nazis/pirates/mobsters are catching up, that’s the key. The black moment of the story is what makes the resolution satisfying. The more impossible it the black moment looks the more rewarding the victory.

This is also why we’ve kept a special focused on content for teenagers. The stories they take in now become the stories they interpret the world through as adults. The future of our country depends upon teens that grow up able to push through black moments. Knowing we have to win for that reason alone keeps me going.

Without the risk there isn’t the adventure, or the reward. And a tech startup is an adventure. So, here’s to the skeleton’s that dies pointing the way!

We’ll keep trekking so your death isn’t in vain.

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