David Silva is one of the leading football players in the English Premier League. Some even say the world. Silva was once asked about the natural beauty of his game and where he had learned to play that way.

There’s much in his response for a startup founder:

Learned to play the game?” he responded with a sense of confusion. “You don’t learn to play football. It’s not like school, where someone can sit you down and teach you.

Of course you CAN learn the techniques and skills of football, or of startups. These are the craft. But that’s not what Silva was saying. His answer was about the art, the thing that differentiates the good from the great.

You can’t completely be taught the art. You can be instructed on technique then guided and mentored but the art comes from within. Like Michelangelo’s sculptures perhaps. Revealed, not created.

There is a real sense, amongst many startup founders, that the answers to building a successful business can be found in a book, or in the latest post on the front page of Hacker News. The truth is that, at least for the part you can control, there really is no instruction manual for startup success.

To use Silva’s words, there’s no school where someone can sit you down and teach you how to create a successful startup. It’s far too personal a journey for that.

We believe in the craft at 25Fifteen. That there are things that can be learnt, things subject to the scientific method, that can increase your chances of success — but we also believe deeply in the art. And in guiding founders who have the potential to discover theirs.

Our hope is that in return founders will do some guiding of us too — after all, the perfection of one’s art is an endless journey.