When you meet me, find out I'm an entrepreneur, and say goodbye, stop adding in "good luck!"

Half question, half comment.  If you’re an entrepreneur, have you found that after new folks meet you and find out you’re starting a company, they tend to end their first time meeting you with the following?  "Good luck!"

And the only people who say that are folks who haven’t started companies. That happened to me a few times tonight at a Global Philanthropy Forum event (fantastic, btw; sign up for their email list!)

Of course, people are just trying to be polite, and of course I appreciate that.  But I think what bothers me most about the usage of that phrase, is that it highlights a common misconception in society: that entrepreneurial success is reliant on luck.

The truth is that it’s much more about two factors: resilience (thick skin, self confidence) and drive (passion, intelligence).  I stole that from Jessica Livingston in her What Goes Wrong article, and she’s totally right.

So hopefully, next time people meet me and find out I’ve started a company, they end with: "never give up, never surrender!"