Dissertation success stories, and similar startup success stories, often feature a solitary person who succeeds through sheer determination and without any assistance at all. These stories are often incomplete and tend to emphasize individual grit and lucky breaks while simultaneously erasing the unglamorous planning, structure, and methodology that actually made success possible or likely. The prevalence of these stories encourage students and founders to avoid seeking out help from those who have more experience, and discourage teaching these crucial planning techniques.

There is a severe lack of stories in the dissertation space about what dissertation students need to make their work successful - editing, data analysis, narration, and visualization. As dissertation stories echo startup success stories, we can determine the best course of action by taking and applying lessons from the failures and mistakes of startups. The podcast How I Built This by Guy Raz exposes the flaws in this entrepreneurial mythology through clever questions and storytelling.

The very first episode of How I Built This features Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx. When first listening, it is the standard startup success story of Blakely overcoming the odds and laughing about charming stories of small mistakes. When listening to the role that luck played, this story falls apart. One notable example was when Blakely realized that the only store she had a manufacturing and sales contract with wasn’t the right fit for Spanx. Because she was low on funds and was already in a contract, Blakely decided to place Spanx near the checkout line at Target. This situation could have easily gone horribly wrong, and could have been avoided with more robust planning and market research.

In total, there were eight separate instances that episode with the same root causes - a lack of proper planning and project management. These instances where proper planning could have helped Blakely aren't just about efficiency - they're about unnecessary stress, wasted resources, and near-miss disasters that only look charming in retrospect.

We have studied these episodes in detail, and are fully prepared to offer whatever is needed for each dissertation without falling into the dissertation success trap. Our project management and planning will reduce stress and enable your success by letting you focus on what you know how to do.