That's why successful innovators, after coming up with an idea that seems crazy, must be able to shift seamlessly to a rational dissection of the idea's merits and pitfalls. A creative idea has been born. The Arpanet, too, was invented to keep costs down by enabling Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contractors to do their computing on each other's machines. Nobody did that. Instead, the new networking capability gave rise to e-mail, file transfers and, eventually, the Internet.
People think entrepreneurs start companies to make big money.
And where there is no passion, there is usually no money. The right entrepreneurial culture, too, requires a strong leader, who fuels passion and keeps everyone focused on the main mission. And when they fail, the best innovators are ready to move on to their next startup without a second thought. It's even rarer for them all to come together in a startup. Perhaps that's why so few succeed.