Does the end justify the means, or does the means justify the end?

If you're successful in the end and achieved your goals, does it matter that how the process went? Does the end justify the means of getting there?

Or is the process more important than the result? Does the means justify the end?

Depending on your data source, 75-95% of startups fail. Being aware of this stat, why would anyone launch a startup knowing the odds are stacked up against them? And why would anyone endure the heartburn that running a startup gives you?

Partially because entrepreneurs will value the process and everything they'll learn doing things on their own and building something from nothing, regardless of how things end up.

The means will justify the end.

On the other hand, let's take the battle between Lyft and Uber. Uber is the dominant ride-hailing platform and has a valuation more than 10 times that of Lyft. In the end, they'll likely destroy their "little" competitor.

But the way they are winning hasn't always been kosher. They've been really aggressive and at times unethical in pursuing growth, while Lyft has grown with good intentions, albeit much more slowly.

Uber believes that the end will justify the means, while Lyft likely believes the means will justify the end (maybe).

So what do you think? Do you think the process is more important than the result, or is the result more important than how you get there?

This is day 21 of my experiment to blog for 30 consecutive days.