When you think it is time to call it quits, it might in fact be your finest hour

This may be a timely post for many NYC tech start-ups.  Many aspiring entrepreneurs will have already received bad news regarding their TechStars application.  Only 30 out of an astonishing 540 applying companies will be chosen as finalists.

Many of these applicants had pretty good ideas led by driven founders with something at least minimally demonstrable.  There is a good chance that there were a group of 50 applications that were so strong that much debate occurred on the TechStars committee in order to pick just 30.  Now those 30 will have to compete to be one of the 10 that get into the program.

This will be a huge blow to many of these entrepreneurs and will be their biggest rejection to date.  The less serious applicants may simply give up thinking they needed TechStars to be successful.  Some Type-A, uber-Alpha personalities will reject entrepreneurship altogether having never faced rejection previously in their cloistered lives.  There folks were never serious to begin with and it’s probably best that they got the rejection early.

I wonder about the other group of entrepreneurs however still clinging to their dreams.  They have genuine passion and have the internal stuff to be successful.  They have hit a major fork in the road though and are now wondering how to take the next step.  Maybe they think this is their darkest hour.

I wonder about those entrepreneurs that decide to soldier onward.  They got started, built something small, grew their user base and started looking like a serious company with offices, employees and customers.  The revenues are not consistent though and payroll does not always come through.  The layoffs happen, the doubts build and trusted confidents move to greener pastures.  They wake up in the middle of the night and realize it is their darkest hour.

In June 1940, Winston Churchill rallied a desperate island nation to fight back against immense odds, when all hope seemed lost.  That was Europe’s darkest hour and he was not naïve enough to gloss over the obvious.  He also gave his people hope that despite the circumstances, that this could be their finest hour.  Mind you, this was before "The Blitz" nearly obliterated all of London.

The great stories are not about how everything worked out according to plan, but about overcoming adversity and surviving calamity.  This is because we know this is how real life works.  We get kicked in the gut, then get back in the ring for the next round.  Many times things may start to look up, only to hit a new low.  When everything seems to point to eminent disaster and your start-up is teetering on the edge of the abyss, entrepreneurs buck up and manage through the darkness.  They may sell the company, get more funding, secure a huge customer or partnership, or hit the tipping point and grow viral.  What looks dark and hopeless becomes their finest hour.

Whatever the outcome may be of this weekend’s decision on TechStars or other incubator programs you are thinking of applying, move on and hunker down on your dream.  If you are serious about building your vision into a real company, it is not the program that makes you successful, it is you.  Embrace that truth and may you come upon your finest hour.