The most underrated quality of all is being really determined this is more important than being smart. This is more important than having a network. The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and the frequency of bad stuff that happens to you. Most people that are good in really other ways eventually just get killed. The company gets killed by stuff going wrong and you know so much about being a successful entrepreneur is just not giving up. When we have funded people who have a great idea perfect background on paper and you know a great product and still failed it has usually been that they’re insufficiently determined so I think this is the most important non obvious skill of a founder of course you need a good product and a good market and to be smart but that’s really obvious. Another thing that really matters that is non obvious is independent thought and this I think is an even more unusual skill than determination. I think both of these you can make a conscious effort and build up but I think independent thought is one of the hardest skills to build up because like we are all speeding of social pressures from birth. We are all pushed to think like other people and if you think in your own lives about the number of people you spend time with that you would say are true independent thinkers that consistently have new ideas you haven’t heard from other people and think about the world in different ways it’s probably a very short list.
最被低估的品質是真正的決心，這比聰明更重要。這比擁有人脈更重要。創辦公司最困難的事情是，你遭遇壞事的程度和頻率。大多數在其他方面表現出色的人最終都會被幹掉。你知道，作為一個成功的創業者，最重要的就是不放棄。我們曾資助過一些人，他們有一個很好的想法，有完美的書面背景，有很好的產品，但還是失敗了，這通常是因為他們不夠堅定，所以我認為這是創始人最重要的非顯性技能，當然，你需要一個好的產品和一個好的市場，而且要聰明，但這真的很明顯。另一項非顯而易見的重要技能是獨立思考，我認為這是比決心更不尋常的技能。我認為這兩項技能都可以通過有意識的努力來培養，但我認為獨立思考是最難培養的技能之一，因為我們從一出生就受到社會的壓力。我們都被逼著像其他人一樣思考，如果你想想在自己的生活中，有多少與你朝夕相處的人，你會說他們是真正的獨立思考者，他們總是有你從其他人那裡沒有聽說過的新想法，並以不同的方式思考這個世界。