#243: Steve Case, Cofounder of AOL – Success takes time

Almost every company, there's a few overnight successes, but very, very few. Most of them are, you know, a struggle and a slog and there are times where it doesn't look like it's even going to be successful. And and just being able to punch through that, power through that, stick with it, I think, is is incredibly important. Everybody loves the success story, but not enough people talk about what it takes to stay in the game long enough to build one.

Welcome to How Leaders Lead. I'm David Novak, and every week I have conversations with the best leaders in the world to help you become the best leader you can be. My guest today is Steve Case, the co-founder of America Online. These days he's the chair and CEO of Revolution. A firm that backs entrepreneurs from all across the country, including companies like Kava and Framebridge.

Now the Internet might feel like the air we breathe today, but in 1985, when Steve co founded AOL, that sure as heck was not the case. Steve and his team had to persist through years of doubts and setbacks and chaos before America really did get online and make AOL the top performing stock of the 90s. So what do you do when progress is slow like that? In today's episode, you'll see how Steve built the resilience to keep going when success felt like a slog. And how the good news is for us, that same mindset he used to grow his business is one you can learn from too.

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