I want a story about a person that struggled for many years. That made lots of mistakes. That learned lessons the hard way. That eventually combined the right idea with the right execution in the right market to make a living. Not buy a boat you can land a helicopter on. Not conquer the world with iPads. Just make a living. The real startup story that most people live.

In the startup community, we keep emphasizing the dramatic, the kids out of college cashing in on a billion-dollar IPO. But hell, that’s not the story that any of us who are actually doing the work are actually living. We need more realistic success stories if we truly want to help each other out.

Tell me more of those stories. Please.