The Power of Perseverance: Starburst’s Journey from Open Source Vision to $3.35 Billion Valuation
At age 20, according to legend, Odysseus entered the war at Troy. He spent ten years fighting till the end of The Trojan War. Looking to return to his wife and kingdom, he embarks on his ship, only to be caught in a never-ending journey lasting another ten years.
Ryan Holiday tells this story in his fascinating book on how obstacles help us move forward to make one point: There’s persistence, and then there’s perseverance. Odysseus was on an entirely different level; what he needed was more than persistence; it was perseverance.
“If persistence is attempting to solve some difficult problem with dogged determination,…. [then] perseverance is something larger.” — Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is The Way
Perseverance single-handedly describes both the company Starburst and its CEO, Justin Borgman. There is something larger at work here; neither Justin nor the company he has built are only persisting against challenges — that most founders and companies do.
Instead, what they show is something on a different level: perseverance.
And that’s why it’ll make Starburst one of the biggest data companies of this century.
