First came the crash of e-commerce speculation, complete with layoffs, stock crashes, and capital losses. The mascot of this decline was Sock Puppet, the creation of Pets.com, a startup that advertised during the Super Bowl in January and closed down in November.

Call it dot-bomb, dot-bust, or any favorite analog cliché: The gold rush was over. Startup after startup was founded through the 1990s on venture capital, inexperienced management, and visions of grandeur. Too many companies sprang out of nowhere and many fell flat. Instead of carefully managing capital, executives poured money into so-called customer acquisition and pushed themselves toward disaster.

Besides the temptation to Get Big Fast, too many managers saw an initial public offering into the stock market as a destination instead of a mile-marker. Instead of trying to build long-term excellence, they tried to dress up risky business models for investment banks and investors so they could get rich quick.

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