The only consistent advice I have ever gotten from the most financially successful people I know (many worth >$100MM) has been to never give up. Some of them took decades to get to even moderate success.
The last decade has been an illusion of how quickly you can get rich starting a company. It can take years to see payoff and it is not always obvious.
Extraordinary people can fail and regular people can make a lot of dough. I've met with a few billionaires myself and I have to say I didn't find them to be a different class of human. Just luckyer, from good families and with a very good sense of timing. Obviously very good at what they do. But fundamentally not that different from you and I.
Off the top of my head Uber was Travis' third startup. Does that make him a quitter or a perseverer?
At my age I known plenty of tech entrepreneurs who've been at it for 10 years with no big hits. Statistically some of them will eventually make it. I doubt I'll be able to say sincerely they were the ones with more grit. But I'm sure they themselves will say it for me :)
"never give up" coming from people who succeeded after decades of work.
It's obvious that a prerequisite for success is not giving up, but what about the people who didn't give up for decades and have nothing to show for it? I suppose they don't exist.
1. Was it worth it? I have moderate success, and I'm still making less than I would if employed.
2. Wouldn't it be faster if you did it with another idea/team? Pivots do some of that, but sometimes it's a structural problem.
Not to mention that many entrepreneurs try it when they're young and just plain don't have the experience necessary. Not sure what would be a good education on that, other than keep burning other people's money for 2-3-5 times.