If you’ve ever been involved in a startup you know that it’s a different world. I have the advantage of having been on both sides of the corporate wall. I’ve been at the head of a successful startup, and I’ve been an executive at a 100-year old company. Startups are their own unique creatures.

Now, one of the sports I truly enjoy is Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). MMA is, in many ways, the perfect confluence of the fighting sports. Wrestling, Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing and all of it meet in this environment.

The same is true with starting a company. It’s a wild ride, where every possible business variable comes into play. And starting a company is also a lot like MMA training in a number of ways:

Practice all you want, at some point you’ve got to perform.

At some point, you need to free your product from the confines of the startup environment. You’ve got to create a winning product. Your startup needs to put something out there that does its job, and does it well. Amazing and robust solutions that never leave the confines of the test environment are useless.

It’s all about survival of the fittest.

The startup world is one of heavy competition. Your opponents are out there, and they’re doing their damndest to get your customers. You need to not only perform, but to perform better than everyone else out there in the field. One weak link in your startup will cause the whole thing to fail. You need to be the best of the best.

No matter how strong your supporting cast, it falls on you alone to make things happen

Talented product development teams, spot-on marketers and a dynamic sales force are essential to the success of a startup. At the end of the day, however, it’s up to you to put those assets to work in a way that really impacts the market. The startup will rise and fall on your vision and leadership (or lack thereof).

Ideas don’t mean jack shit. Only execution matters.

You might think you’ve got the best moves, that your product is better than anyone else’s. You might even be right. But if you can’t successfully get that product to the market and then beat out the competition, having the better product doesn’t do much for you. If you don’t believe me, just remember the lesson of Betamax. An arguably superior technology was put to bed by VHS because the folks behind VHS were better at getting their product to the people.

Sometimes, the guy who can hold his breath the longest wins.

It isn’t always the company with the best idea that wins out. In many cases, startups aren’t going to beat their competition because they have a better product or even better tactics. Many battles are simply battles of attrition. The longer you can take a beating or hold your breath, the more likely you are to wind up in the victory circle.