YC Masters Sam Altman: The only thing that started to be a company was dead end.

At the start of my business, I often resented the fact that someone else called my startup a project. "What's your project like?" "It doesn't sound like people are taking the business I take seriously. I remember thinking, "Once my company got $5 million in a round of financing, I wouldn't be bothered by these ideas," and that's not the case, and I later felt that we were really successful only when we were all called companies.

And to this day, my thoughts are completely reversed. I want people to see my career as a project rather than a company, whether it's before, now, or in the future long enough.

The word of the company sounds too serious. Once you look at your career as a company, you will do things in a company way. You will be plagued by firms that are associated with lawyers, conferences, and financing, and are not able to devote more energy to product creation. Because as a company you should have to deal with trivial things, and this is actually a promising idea of the death of the kiss.

The expectations of the anti-Outlook projects are low, and that's a good thing. The project also means fewer team members and less investment, which gives you more flexibility and allows you to focus more on your product. " And people's expectations of the company is very high, you burn money to burn the more you will be more pressure, your situation will often become worse (color and clinkle are two good examples )

To make things worse, if you're a company, you're not going to get caught up in some of the crazy ideas that seem to be small, but chase the ideas that sound bigger. So, compared to a project, a company's pursuit of things is very limited. When it's just a project, even if what you're doing is a seemingly insignificant idea, even if you don't succeed in the end, it's harmless. Instead of chasing flashy ideas, you're more likely to realize something you feel good about.

When you're doing a project, you can spend more time verifying the viability of your idea. And when you do a company, you will feel the pressure of time, and you will always feel thorn, because everyone is waiting for your results.

But too much time is too risky for the project, and many people regard it as a lazy excuse. If you don't have strong self-discipline to work hard in the absence of outside pressure, the project becomes a shield for you to take lightly.

Great companies start with ideas that sound general, and they all begin with a project. In fact, if they were to be treated as companies at the outset, their founders would not even be able to implement them because they sounded irrelevant.

Google and Yahoo started out as a project for college students, and Facebook was a project that Zuckerberg made during his sophomore period; Twitter is an amateur program that an engineer has to do with what he does in the company while he's at work. Airbnb is a project launched by the founders to make some extra money to pay the rent. In the end they all became great businesses.

All of these ideas, which were finally proven to be great, looked very general at the beginning. This is the magical magic that most businesses get to succeed. If they were treated as a company at the outset, they would probably have died in the early days. The pressures of external (and internal) expectations are often long-term and subtle, which often reign those magical ideas. So, great businesses often start with projects.

Heaven Zhuhai Branch Rudder Note: This is YC boss Sam Altman's latest article, published in its personal blog, the Chinese version by Heaven Zhuhai Branch Rudder compiled. More articles please pay attention to the public number:Techgogogo or official website www.techgogogo.com. Of course, you are also very welcome to pick up directly (zhubaitian1). Welcome to Forward Reprint, reprint faction Please indicate the public number information.

YC Masters Sam Altman: The only thing that started to be a company was dead end.