The Price Of Waiting

We’ve seen the movie, played far too often. A young CEO is so keen to grow their company, so keen to get their hands on investor money, that they sign away control instead of doing the slow, painful work of building a fortress.

This seems to be a lesson learned the hard way by A LOT of the startups our buddy, Eric Ries, has interacted with over the years, to disastrous results.

It’s the same reason a nineteen-year-old musician signs a record deal without properly reading the contract. It’s why young fighters do the same when the UFC comes calling, despite the slim odds of making it to the top and the very fat odds of suffering debilitating injuries.

They want their fame, power, glory, impact, legacy, (fill in the blank) and they want it NOW. So they go along with the fine print, thinking they’ll have time to protect their creation after the fact. But the pied piper always comes to collect eventually. 

They’re ecstatic about finally being given their moment, and like Alexander Hamilton sang in the musical, “I am not throwing away my shot.” 

The Ancient Greeks knew all about this (they always do, somehow). They called it “The Choice of Achilles.”

In Homer’s Iliad, “The Choice of Achilles” refers to the fateful decision given to the hero by his mother, the goddess Thetis. He can either sail to Troy to win immortal fame (kleos) and die young, or stay home in obscurity for a long, peaceful life (nostos). Spoiler for those of you who haven’t read the tale: he chose glory and an early death.

In the Iliad’s sequel, The Odyssey, Odysseus journeys to the underworld and meets Achilles’ ghost, and asks him if he thinks he made the right choice.

Achilles delivers a definite “no,” saying he’d rather be the lowliest slave on the poorest, most barren farm in the world and stay alive than die young pursuing the other option, no matter how glorious. That’s how precious life is, as most protagonists discover far too late.

Almost all of us have made the wrong Achilles’ Choice at some point. For the same reason: Vanity. Pride. Ego. Greed. Self-Flattery. FOMO. The heady rush and utter sexiness of being invited to the party of history’s elites. Things you learn to be wary of with experience. 

This is why Eric’s advice matters so much. The best time to build your fortress is when everyone tells you it’s unnecessary. Before the investors. Before the lawyers. Before the acquisition offers. Before success. Sure it might take longer, but it may be the thing that lets you have the best of both worlds: success and the time to enjoy it. 

Next time, listen to your grandma when she tells you that “education is expensive.”