The Seven-Week Quitters
Sam Altman sees the same pattern over and over. Young founders try something. Seven weeks pass. It doesn't work yet. They declare it wasn't meant to be and move on.
The satirical version: someone who's 23 with 14 startups on their resume. They quit every single one before it had a chance to succeed.
Seven weeks isn't enough time to fail. It's barely enough time to start.
The Trough of Sorrow
Y Combinator has a name for it. The trough of sorrow. It's the phase where nobody even bothers to tell you your product sucks. Because nobody cares at all.
People criticizing you is painful. But at least they noticed. The trough of sorrow is silence. Complete indifference from the world. That's the real test.
Criticism means someone noticed. Silence means nobody cares. Silence is worse.
The Founders Who Won Stayed Longer
Altman has spent time with many founders who became wildly successful. Almost all of them share one trait. They spent a very long time on their idea when most people would have quit.
People told them it sucked. Or people said nothing at all. They kept building anyway. Not because they were stubborn. Because they hadn't run out of ideas yet.
The most successful founders Altman knows persisted through years of silence and criticism.
Make It an Internal Decision
Altman's framework for quitting is simple. The decision should be internal, not external. People not using your product? That alone isn't a reason to quit. They might be wrong.
The right time to quit: when you've run out of ideas and nothing is working. That's an internal signal. You're empty. You've tried everything you can think of. Then it's time.
Don't quit because outsiders say it's failing. Quit when you've run out of ideas.