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The Dirty Truth About “Overnight Success” Stories
(and What They’re Not Telling You)
We’ve all heard the stories…
…The app went from zero to a million users in a month.
…The startup raised a massive round out of nowhere and became an instant unicorn.
…The founder seemed to come out of thin air and disrupt an entire industry overnight.
These “overnight success” narratives are catnip for aspiring entrepreneurs.
They fuel the fantasy that with one great idea and a little bit of hustle, you too could become an instant billionaire. Just build an amazing product, launch it to the world, and watch the money and accolades come pouring in.
But here’s the dirty truth that those stories leave out: there’s no such thing as an overnight success.
Behind every “sudden” triumph are years of hard work, iteration, and often failure. The unglamorous reality of entrepreneurship is that it’s a long, grueling journey with no guarantees.
Take the story of Slack…
…the workplace messaging app that’s now worth over $20 billion. Slack is often heralded as an overnight success, going from launch to a $1 billion valuation in just 8 months. But what that narrative omits is that Slack was…
