Microsoft Is A Slow Coach, BUT …

Nial Kennedy, popular blogger and web 2.0 geek has just decided to quit Microsoft, after four months of working there. Reason? Frustration!

No doubt, Microsoft has become a slow coach. They can neither hire talent, nor retain talent. But.

Look at Nial Kennedy’s resume. He doesn’t stick around anywhere for very long. Certainly not long enough to make an impact. Now, he wants to start a company of his own … well, if you were a VC, would you fund someone with a track-record of getting frustrated within so short a time?

As all those who aspire to become entrepreneurs one day will learn in due course, entrepreneurship requires tremendous patience, enormous nerve, and it entails frustration, ups and downs, resilience, maneuvering, … most importantly, time.

I have thought many times about starting another company, kicked around ideas with VCs, etc. Every deal has its set of requirements. Some need more capital than others, and if you try to do deals that need a lot of capital, with little capital, your shirt gets torn off your sweaty body! Others can be done with little capital, but at the cost of extreme personal stress and sacrifice. I have weighed these factors against those particular deals, and decided not to pull the trigger, because I wasn’t convinced that I wanted to sign off the next 5 years of my life, given the parameters around it.

No matter what, the one currency you cannot afford to launch yourself into entrepreneurship without is time and patience.

Thus, I for one am frowning upon Nial’s decision (a) to join Microsoft (b) to quit Microsoft (c) to start a company.
Corollary: Never join any company where you cannot stay at least 2 years. And never start a company unless you are ready for a relatively long haul. Someone should have advised Niall on career management.