The Martian: A takeaway for the entrepreneurial spirit
What can an entrepreneur learn from The Martian?
It’s 100% sure you’re going to die.
Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie yet, be aware this article contains a few spoilers.
Mark Watney (Interpreted by Matt Damon) was left alone in Mars, with zero possibilities of going back home alive at hindsight. His approach was basically to start solving one problem at a time — How can I make the food I have to last enough so I can survive? How can I let NASA know I am still alive? How can I travel 3,200kms to the rescue spot?. At the end of the movie, there’s this scene where he steps in a class room and gives this speech that really resonates in me every time I hear it (Oh boy, I’ve read the book and seen the movie just so many times I just know it by heart):
At some point, everything is gonna go south on you, everything is gonna go south on you and then you’re going to say “this is it”, “this is how I end”. Now, you can either accept that or you can get to work. That’s how it is, you just begin, you do the math, you solve one problem, and you solve the next, and then the next. If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.
9 out of 10 Startup ventures fail. When launching a new business, the possibility of yours failing too is incredibly huge. Now, you can either accept that fact, or you can get to work. You build your MVP, you plan a Go-to-market strategy, you build a Sales channel, you get customers, you hire talent — you solve one problem at a time. Now, there’s a natural reaction to worry too much on what can go wrong. If you have a problem, you just can’t stop thinking about it. However, I’ve learned that you will likely find a solution when you focus on solving the problem instead of just focusing too much in the problem itself.
Ben Horowitz puts it this way on his Book: The hard thing about hard things:
“There are always a thousand things that can go wrong and sink the ship. If you focus too much on them, you will drive yourself nuts and likely capsize your company. Focus on where you are going rather than on what you hope to avoid.” — Ben Horowitz
Don’t be afraid of failing, because the moment you are afraid, the moment you believe you can’t take it anymore, that moment is when you’ll stop trying, and oh boy, there’s nothing worst in life than stop trying.
