“You know pretty quickly, and in a very public way, whether a product is successful or not,” said Mr. Hilwa.

Similar to opening week at the movies, early reviews on the Web panning a new tablet or phone can be disastrous for its makers.

This New York Times piece makes the case for its title conclusion. My question is: does this also apply to software releases?

Does Techcrunch have the same sort of promoting power with web startups that Pitchfork has with music? How does software get that elusive traction that gives them the initial userbase needed to succeed in the long-term? How much harder is it to pivot a hardware venture versus a software venture, and is there a chance for smaller startups to enter the hardware game? Fusion Garage's JooJoo tablet didn’t have that early success. We’ll see how their recently-released “Grid” systems sell.

A revolutionary thought! The point of my life was to enjoy it to its potential, with goals to set the direction in which I was headed.

This was my new definition of the game.

And it meant it was impossible to run out of time, because every day was a brand new opportunity to play and win.

The point being — you're not wasting your time if you're doing what makes you happy. Rahul used to worry about the goalposts always moving, making success just a new starting point for another, more impossible, farther goal which implies success.

It's often tough for me, but I've found that the best way to be happy is to look at all experiences as valuable, even your "failures".