This paper looks to success and failure outside the beaten path. It suggests that some firms, also in dynamic high-tech industries, are neither successful nor failures but stalled: they go through enduring periods of underachievement yet do not die. Considerable research has been done to identify the conditions for success and failure, but, particularly in high-tech industries, almost no research has been devoted to companies that stall. This phenomenon nevertheless raises important questions. What does it imply, if we no longer assume that every business in a high-tech industry is necessarily dynamic? Can these firms still be a source of jobs, growth and the renewal of the economy? Can understanding these stalling firms help us understand the nature of high-tech industries and their historical evolution over time?