A while ago I went to an expo and read the following about Ambroise Vollard (picture below):

It made me think artists are a bit like start-ups. If they're too innovative and ahead of the curve, they'll have a tough time finding funding. Another excerpt from a post about Literature Nobel Prize Alice Munro by Brain-Pickings made me extend the analogy:

In a 1994 Paris Review interview, she offers a curious counterpoint to the notion that the reading experience of a story is ever-evolving, by observing that so is its writing experience. Both challenging and affirming the notion of a story’s “sturdy sense of itself,” Munro notes that whenever she begins writing a story, she doesn’t fully know what it will be or where it will go — which is exactly as it should be: "Any story that’s going to be any good is usually going to change". And that, perhaps, is the gift of great literature: The invitation to continually discover and rediscover ourselves, both as readers and as writers, in the perpetually evolving experience of a good story.

In many ways, this is how start-ups deal with products. If you're not familiar with the concept of MVP (Minimum Viable Product), it is one amazing mental model. Facebook started as a face comparison website in a single university. This small experiment proved the product's idea was valid, namely that people like to snoop on other people and "grade" them - maybe ;). Same for your next blog project, your next company or more interestingly, your next friendship. Start small, test, see it evolve, collect feedback and decide whether to grow it or move to some other experiment. We're all start-ups :) Good morning Impossible Family!