Kill your startup while looking smart: failing by half measures

Sometimes you need to go "all in".

A lot of people think they can do the 20% of the work that gets you 80% of the way there, but the problem is that 80% isn't the destination.

A product that only does 80% of the job is expensive to buy, because your customer still has to do the other 80% of the work in house. The product that gets 100% there saves time and money for your customer, and your customer will gladly pay every penny you ask.

I met an aspiring actor at the Nice 'n Easy supermarket near Hollywood and Highland and we talked about his work and some of my misadventures in amateur filmmaking. I told him about the corners that my director though we could cut and get away with and he said "No, you can't cut any corners if you want to be a pro."

And you know, he's right.

Alternate title ... A startup discovers Wizard of Oz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_experiment

(nice article, though)