Jenna Wortham trying to explain what it means to ‘pivot’ in business:
>To pivot is, essentially, to fail gracefully.
*Strike One.*
>“Ideas are like lightning in a bottle, so if the company is small enough and didn’t seem to capture lightning on their first try, it makes sense to try again,” said Ben Horowitz, one of the founders of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
*Strike Two.*
>Sometimes a pivot is necessary when the pace of Internet evolution has made a start-up’s original plan obsolete.
*Strike Three.*
The sad thing is, Wortham actually got it right before trying to sugar coat the term:
>Theirs is just one example of a start-up that decided to cut its losses and pivot — choosing an entirely new direction in the hopes of transforming a dud of a business into one that might have a shot at success.
*Home run.*
Pivoting is just a face-saving way of saying: “our idea was shit.”