Startups - too much of a good thing?

It is possible that we've got to a point that everyone wants to 'do' a startup - whether one has what it takes or not.  This is especially true in places like Silicon Valley, and arguably the trend has peaked when there's a reality show about startups in Silicon Valley (though it appears likely to be short-lived, like most startups).  

There's a lot of buzz and hype on finding ideas and starting companies, even dropping out of school to do so.  While entrepreneurship is undoubtedly a powerful factor for growth, there's more to making entrepreneurship work than 'doing a startup' - you have to build a successful business.  That is a much harder proposition as it takes toughness, dedication and smarts to stick with it and make it work.

Daniel Isenberg writes about the importance of 'scaling-up' over 'starting-up' in this HBR post.  Scaling-up results in entrepreneurial growth and value creation.  He compares the start-up/scale-up actions to giving birth to a child vs. raising a child - the first is necessary to be able to do the second, but the second makes the first meaningful.   Too bad 'Scaling-up in Silicon Valley' is unlikely to be the next big reality show.