We were either really unlucky or just really bad (startups are difficult)

When you hear about a game that almost no one ever wins, it doesn’t sound like it’s a lot of fun to play. Some take luck, others skill, but who really wants to come home a loser? But when the bright lights start flashing big dollar signs and zeros, the game starts to look a little different. Welcome to the world of creating new products.

The mistake we make when dreaming up something new is that we think we’re playing the wrong kind of game. We love ideas, and when we’re graced with inspiration, it feels like we won the PowerBall and our ticket to the top. But really, after feeling unlucky one too many times, we as a product team found out the hard way that we weren’t unlucky, but just inexperienced, and we needed to work tirelessly at getting really, really good.

Here are a couple very different games:

1. You could win $1,000 if you paid $1 to spin a wheel for a 1% chance of winning. (that’s improbable)
2. You would win $100 million if you were able to perform a successful heart transplant on your closest family member (that’s very, very difficult)

What if you had to choose if you wanted to play today? For everyone who isn’t a cardiac surgeon, you might win the first, but you won’t win the second. You’d also be fine losing a buck for a chance at winning, but not so much a loved one.

But if you didn’t have to choose today, and instead could try at any point in your life, would you change your mind? You could go to med school, shadow the best surgeons, practice every way possible. After decades, that second bet might look a lot different.

Creating successful new products and startups is very, very difficult, but not improbable. It’s sincerely the most difficult thing we’ve ever tried, besting the most gifted and experienced people we’ve ever met. But despite the impossibility of overstating the magnitude, we still get bewitched by billion dollar IPOs and legendary founder stories, especially when it feels like we’ve already hit the jackpot with an idea. But in a game of great skill, you will lose the first time, the second time, the third time. We have, and we started BLDR in hopes that others won’t have to.

Now here’s a game that might sound more familiar. You have a chance to create a product and company that will forever change your life and the world around you. The cost to play is all of your time, money, and reputation, but most of all, your idea. There are no do-overs and no turning back, and what you are about to attempt requires a little luck, and a lifetime of skill.

So, we’re offering you a new choice:

1. You can try, almost certainly fail, but be better and smarter for it. There’s no way around…you only learn to be a parent by raising a child, and you only learn to be fighter by getting hit…or…
2. You can lean on the leadership and experience of a bruised-but-never-beaten team of veterans to join you in this incredibly difficult challenge so that you will have a shot at doing this on the first try, not just might.

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