The Garage

"Born in a New York City bar and raised in a rented closet."

I came across this line last week - a founder describing how their company started. Great image. You can picture the scrappy beginnings.

A few paragraphs down: Harvard MBA. First investor was a classmate. Peter Thiel wrote a cheque.

The closet was real. So was everything that came before it.

Of course the story starts where they want it to start. That's what stories do. The thing is, the editing is so good you don't notice the seams. It reads like the whole story.

I spent five years building a company from a shabby office in East London. No funding, no attention, daily failures. And I remember reading other founders' origin stories and wondering why my version felt so much messier... and, well, crappy.

It took me a long time to notice that many startup garages come with a set of keys somebody gave the founders. Mine did too - a degree, growing up speaking the most common language in the world, a couple of doors that opened a little easier.

I'm not saying don't leap. Not at all. Go ahead and leap, step, pirouette, star jump. I love people who do their own thing.

But notice the edit.

Ask what came before the 'first product made in the garage'. What did they have that isn't in the story?

Because when you're wondering why you're not further along - you might actually be far along.

You're just comparing your rough cut to someone else's final take.