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Marc Andreessen: Every Innovator Eventually Starts to Like the Taste of Their Own Blood

By Marc Andreessen · Mindset & Career · 1 min read

Once it works, stories get retconned — it was inevitable all along, everyone knew it was a good idea. But if you were there during the work, that's not how it happened. They faced a wall of skepticism. Wall of social denial.

Key Points

If you're agreeable, people will tell you new ideas are stupid and you'll stop. End of story.
Being an entrepreneur is like getting punched in the face over and over. Eventually you start to like the taste.
Clustering with other innovators helps — very few people can survive universally negative responses for years alone.

Being an entrepreneur is like getting punched in the face over and over again. Eventually you start to like the taste of your own blood.

The Stories Get Retconned

Andreessen: Once something works, the stories get retconned. It was inevitable all along. Everyone always knew. The person has won awards, society embraced them.

If you were actually with them when they were doing the work — or get a couple drinks into them — they'd say no, that's not how it happened. They faced a wall of skepticism. Social denial. 'No, this won't work.' 'No, I'm not joining your company.' 'No, I'm not buying your product.'

Once it works, the stories get retconned. Get a couple drinks into them — that's not how it happened at all.

Why Agreeableness Kills Innovation

Andreessen: This is why agreeableness is a problem for innovation. If you're agreeable, you're going to listen to the people around you. They're going to tell you that new ideas are stupid. End of story. You're not going to proceed.

They need to be able to deal with social discomfort to the level of ostracism. Or at some point they're going to get shaken out and just quit.

If you're agreeable, people tell you new ideas are stupid. End of story. You won't proceed.

The Taste of Your Own Blood

Andreessen: Sean Parker has the best line. Being an entrepreneur is like getting punched in the face over and over again. Eventually you start to like the taste of your own blood.

That makes everybody massively uncomfortable. But it gives you a sense of how painful the process is. Talk to any entrepreneur who's been through it — they're like, oh yeah, that's exactly what it's like.

Being an entrepreneur is like getting punched in the face. Eventually you like the taste of your own blood.

The Clustering Effect

Andreessen: Very few people have the ego strength to survive universally negative responses for years. There's a huge advantage to clustering. Throughout history — Renaissance Florence with artists, ancient Greece with philosophers, Silicon Valley with tech.

If somebody wants to innovate in tech, they're better off around people trying to do that. But clustering has side effects — even among very disagreeable people, you start to get groupthink. A herd of iconoclasts looking for the next big thing. The herd part is what you have to be careful of.

It's a herd of iconoclasts looking for the next big thing. The herd part — that's what you have to be careful of.