“Entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed, and unknowable until an investment is made.”

After more than a decade of building ventures across Asia, I can say with full conviction: this is the most honest statement I’ve ever heard about entrepreneurship.
It’s not a comfortable truth. But it’s the truth: Not everyone is built to be an entrepreneur.

It’s Not About the Idea — It’s About the Bounce Back

The defining trait that separates those who make it from those who don’t isn’t brilliance, funding, or even having a world-changing idea. It’s resilience — your ability to recover from failure and keep moving forward.
When I co-founded ATEC back in 2016, we had a big vision: clean cooking tech that could dramatically reduce indoor air pollution, raise household incomes, and help fight climate change.
The potential was enormous. The reality? Much harder. In Cambodia, we faced skeptical customers, fragmented logistics, and moments where it felt like nothing would work.
Those were the first of many inflection points: quit, or adapt. We chose to listen more deeply to our customers, refine the model, and push forward — one step at a time.

Resilience Is a Repeating Test

That first battle wasn’t the last. A decade later, with $10M+ raised and over 100,000 lives impacted, I still get tested — maybe more now than ever.
When we expanded into Bangladesh in late 2019, we thought we had most of the hard lessons behind us. Instead, we faced a new wave of challenges:

• regulatory surprises

• partner commitments that didn’t hold

• and a distribution model that didn’t translate well across borders

Then COVID-19 hit.
Once again, we had to make a choice: fold, or find another way. And once again, resilience was the difference. (Also — the golden startup rule of hiring the best damn person as your first hire helped, too.)

Are You Built for This?

Some people face their first real obstacle and realize this path isn’t for them — and that’s perfectly okay. We need all kinds of people to make a society thrive.

But if you're someone who:

• gets knocked down

• admits where you went wrong

• and feels compelled to try again
  
  — then you're likely an entrepreneur at heart.
  
  You can be born with that instinct, or you can develop it. But there’s only one way to know for sure: jump into the void, fail, and see how you respond.
  If you survive that first storm — welcome to the path.
  Just don’t get fooled by the glorified success stories. Real entrepreneurship doesn’t feel like glory. It feels like grit. It hurts. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.