Maxwell Murphy

Want your new start-up to succeed? Launch fugly.

Craigslist.  Google.  Facebook.  Wikipedia.  All fugly.

Why do people use fugly products?  Because they're amazingly useful.

The problem with beautiful design is it tricks entrepreneurs into thinking their quite useful product will succeed.

Quite useful = failure, no matter how well-packaged.

Amazingly useful = success, no matter how fugly.

So my strategy is to launch fugly.  Don't let yourself be the pretty boy/girl without a personality or a brain.  Force yourself to succeed in the early days despite your fugly appearance.  And then when everything else is working go in for a haircut and start putting on some make-up.

I don't know how

Most people let "I don't know how" rule their life.  They DO things they know how to do.  They find someone else to do the things they don't know how to do.

The problem is, finding people is expensive and slow and very often the people we find don't actually save the day.  But that's not our fault.

We don't start that new company.  We don't bring our idea to life.  We don't make our dream happen.  But that's not our fault either.

We embrace the idea we're "delegating".  We pat ourselves on the back for being efficient.  We define ourselves by what we know how to do.

Pretty silly in a world where it's possible/free to learn how to do just about anything.

I don't know how is a joke, and the joke is on you.

I can't

What does I can't really mean?

I've noticed that almost every time I say "I can't" I'm really saying I can't in five minutes.  Or I can't with no preparation.  Or I can't with no study.  Or I can't with my normal just-chillin effort.

Take three days to figure something out and all the I canters will think you're a genius.