It's also caused by more traditional media outlets too.
"Top X entrepreneurs under 20"
"Website X was making $50k/mo in 6 months"
"I just tinkered on the iPhone a bit and now I'm making $2k a day on this little app"
I love the NY Times, but they're chock full of this crap. I guess nobody wants to read a story about "I worked 2 years for nothing, now I'm making slightly more than nothing. Maybe in another 5 years I'll be making enough to equal a decent entry level programming job at MegaCorp."
I find the impatience of many entrepreneurs to be disturbing and confusing. Many seem to expect to build something and cash out within a few years. But creating something so quickly worthy of sale is extremely hard work. How could you work so hard on something unless you loved it? If you loved it so much, why would you want to sell it?
I think there is currently a unique opportunities for entrepreneurs to create businesses that utilize their most prized passions, experiences, and relationships; and that keep them busy and fed for their entire lives.
Life is long. What's wrong with something great taking 10 years to build? Or 20. Look at long it has taken Apple to hit their stride! But, the only way to achieve such endurance is to follow what you love.
At the same time, life is short. Why waste one moment doing something you don't love?
That's nice, but at the same time, while an investor can wait 20 years for a startup they've invested in to succeed, is it reasonable to expect a human being to invest 20 years into a startup that doesn't look like it's succeeding?
The trick lies in being able to tell when something will never work. Sometimes the light at the end of a tunnel is an oncoming train. And no amount of patience will help a buggy-whip company when Henry Ford comes knocking.
"Startup" itself is an impatient word compared to "business". I prefer the term's inherent ambition over "small business", but I think there's an implied assumption that "startups" either win big or flame out, so you have to get traction in your market quickly.
Again one of these posts where the author doesn't have/write about own experience to back up his claims. (Example: "Most successful startups had a long gestation period" - proof? citation? something?) He doesn't even write his full name in his profile. But on the other hand his About-page says he's a Marketer. So the point of this article might not necessarily be the contents.
I'll check with him. He likes to keep a low profile. Otherwise I'm sure he could get a front page post by writing, "How I Built A $1 Million/Year Blog Network With $0 Funding."
The point is well-illustrated, but not at all new. Jim Collins's book Good to Great dedicates an entire chapter to what he calls the flywheel effect. Consistent effort applied over a long period of time with a consistent vision can generate massive results. But, I doubt the concept was new with him, either.
By the way, if you haven't read Good to Great, I highly recommend it. Although based on large, slow-moving businesses, the general points Collins and his team extract are easily applicable to just about any significant project.
Long, long ago, when I was a Stanford undergrad, Jim Collins spoke in one of my classes. At the time, no one had ever heard of him. But he had a huge impact on me. As soon as I got back to my dorm room, I printed up a big sign reading "BHAG" and taped it above my desk!
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1, 1976. Apple went public in December of 1980, roughly 3.5 years later, in the most successful IPO since the Ford Motor Company.
Is this really due to impatience though? You've picked the cream of the crop to make your point, but arguably I'd say these guys were visionaries that stuck to their guns (skated to where the puck was going) more than they were impatient. If anything, they were very patient to let the world catch up to their ideas.
I would agree that with Zuckerberg, that is probably the case. Andrew Mason however, had only been doing ThePoint for a year before he decided to pivot to groupon.
Seems like he's talking more about patience to stick with your business through "the dip" even if it's not an overnight success rather than patience to first launch. Launch away and iterate, but be patient if it's not an overnight success when you first launch it. It's a good message. Along these lines, I always like to remember that most overnight success stories were 3+ years in the making before the "overnight" success.
"Get out there and sell something now!"
"Look what wicked awesome thing I made in a weekend (weekend wink wink nudge nudge)!"
"Make sure you know when to pivot/give up!"
"With adwords yo can validate a market/channel/idea in just a couple days!"