the teams best positioned to endure a bold journey are those in which the benefits from the sensation of progress outweigh the costs of working amidst uncertainty, anonymity, and anxiety.
if progress is a sufficient reward, you can be losing for a long time and still win.
I just talked to a founder whose startup is growing "only" 25% a year and thus felt he needed to get bought. I explained that if he did, he'd need to find somewhere to invest the proceeds, and he'd be unlikely to find any investments that grew at 25% a year.