His opening two caveats are a useful antidote to autobiographies marketed as treasure maps.
First, even though every guy who has done a successful start-up somehow feels
he's therefore become the philosopher-king of business, all experience is
bounded. Further, there are companies that exist to sell products at a profit,
and companies that exist to sell equity to investors. I only know about
the former. The latter tend to flourish in the later stages of a bubble,
and rely on a totally different set of skills related to promotions,
networking and PR.
Second, even within the universe of relevant companies, all "rules for success"
are either obvious or incomplete. In other words, there are no rules for
success. If there were, lots more people would do successful start-ups.
