Practice Makes Perfect.
As with many things in life, the more times you do something, the better you get at it. That was certainly my experience as an entrepreneur, with each successive attempt, I got better and better. One reason for my improved success with each attempt was that I developed a sense of pattern recognition - having seen things fail in the past, I knew some of the pitfalls to avoid the next time out. By the same token, whenever I figured something out that worked, I was much more efficient in getting the job done the next time. After a few times at bat, I also started to appreciate some of the holes in my earlier plans. Those holes were typically in areas that I didn't know well, and largely took for granted. When I hear company pitches today, those holes are usually easy to identify - it's usually where the entrepreneurs is waving their arms the most. Just like me, the holes for these entrepreneurs are usually in areas outside their area of expertise or experience. It isn't unusual for people to think that the things they don't know how to do are easier than the things they do. As a result, they tend to brush over those details, to minimize their importance, and to wave their arms. To those entrepreneurs, I usually tell them that they haven't moved the dots close enough together yet...
So what are the "dots" you ask? The "dots" are a metaphor - It's a venture capitalist's job to connect the dots, and it's an entrepreneur's job to bring those dots really close together. What do the "dots" represent? They are the parts of the story - they need to hold together and metaphorically come as close as possible to painting a nice line that goes up and to the right.
