Every word of advice in this blog post by Terry Tao applies verbatim to many other fields -- including entrepreneurship. Here are two key paragraphs from his post, with just a few words searched & replaced so the text refers to "entrepreneurs" instead of "mathematicians:"
Even if one dismisses the notion of genius, it is still the case that at any given point in time, some entrepreneurs are faster, more experienced, more knowledgeable, more efficient, more careful, or more creative than others. This does not imply, though, that only the “best” entrepreneurs should start companies; this is the common error of mistaking absolute advantage for comparative advantage. The number of interesting business opportunities and problems to work on is vast – far more than can be covered in detail just by the “best” entrepreneurs, and sometimes the set of tools or ideas that you have will find something that other good entrepreneurs have overlooked, especially given that even the greatest entrepreneurs still have weaknesses in some aspects of business. As long as you have education, interest, and a reasonable amount of talent, there will be some market opportunity where you can make a solid and useful contribution. It might not be the most glamorous idea, but actually this tends to be a healthy thing; in many cases the mundane nuts-and-bolts ideas turn out to actually be more important than fancy ones. Also, it is necessary to “cut one’s teeth” on the non-glamorous parts of a field before one really has any chance at all to tackle hard problems; take a look at the early efforts of any of today’s great entrepreneurs to see what I mean by this.
In some cases, an abundance of raw talent may end up (somewhat perversely) to actually be harmful for one’s long-term professional development; if success comes too easily, for instance, one may not put as much energy into working hard, asking dumb questions, or increasing one’s range, and thus may eventually cause one’s skills to stagnate. Also, if one is accustomed to easy success, one may not develop the patience necessary to deal with truly difficult challenges. Talent is important, of course; but how one develops and nurtures it is even more so.
Even if one dismisses the notion of genius, it is still the case that at any given point in time, some entrepreneurs are faster, more experienced, more knowledgeable, more efficient, more careful, or more creative than others. This does not imply, though, that only the “best” entrepreneurs should start companies; this is the common error of mistaking absolute advantage for comparative advantage. The number of interesting business opportunities and problems to work on is vast – far more than can be covered in detail just by the “best” entrepreneurs, and sometimes the set of tools or ideas that you have will find something that other good entrepreneurs have overlooked, especially given that even the greatest entrepreneurs still have weaknesses in some aspects of business. As long as you have education, interest, and a reasonable amount of talent, there will be some market opportunity where you can make a solid and useful contribution. It might not be the most glamorous idea, but actually this tends to be a healthy thing; in many cases the mundane nuts-and-bolts ideas turn out to actually be more important than fancy ones. Also, it is necessary to “cut one’s teeth” on the non-glamorous parts of a field before one really has any chance at all to tackle hard problems; take a look at the early efforts of any of today’s great entrepreneurs to see what I mean by this.
In some cases, an abundance of raw talent may end up (somewhat perversely) to actually be harmful for one’s long-term professional development; if success comes too easily, for instance, one may not put as much energy into working hard, asking dumb questions, or increasing one’s range, and thus may eventually cause one’s skills to stagnate. Also, if one is accustomed to easy success, one may not develop the patience necessary to deal with truly difficult challenges. Talent is important, of course; but how one develops and nurtures it is even more so.