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Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

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Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#381

Post by sebleon »

webwright wrote: post #272

(source: I've twice left my own companies- both companies continued to grow and prosper after I left). Personally, I'd suck it up and get the sale done, working hard to make the price as front-loaded as possible. Depending on the buyers appetite for you to keep working there you could: A) Suggest that you're excited to stay with the business, but if they feel there'd be too many chefs in the kitchen and that you shou…

> I'm a believer that happiness is generally internal. If you can't find a way to be happy with this job, I suspect you'll have a hard time with a different one.

This.

Your job is unlikely to be the root source of your depression. Meditation and introspective thinking will likely tell you what's wrong.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#382

Post by arsenico »

Speaking from a completely different perspective, where we had a wonderful company, and would have never sold unless could not raise money anymore - sell, take money, then indeed hire someone to do your day-to-day, take a sabbatical and come up with a new idea and a new company.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#383

Post by throwanem »

I don't know directly from any of this, because I am an unlettered redneck with air-cooled teeth and a net worth in the middle four figures. But if I had a serious prospect of ending up with genuine fuck-you money, and all I had to do to get it was keep doing what I was already doing and gut it out for a few more years, then that is precisely what I would do, to the best of my ability.

I get that you're suffering, and I am not without compassion. But the kinds of jobs you're fantasizing about are kinds of jobs I've had. They are not without stress, as you imagine them to be. They are physically wearing and not at all secure, but most of all, the kind of stress that comes with those jobs - more to the point, that comes with those jobs being the best prospect you have - is not a kind of stress that ends, save to give way to something worse.

Your current travail, conversely, certainly will end, and based on what admittedly little I know about how startups work, you have a very real prospect of a great big payoff at the end of it. It would, I think, be the regret of a lifetime to squander that enrichment of all your years in search of a more comfortable day after tomorrow.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#384

Post by brango »

karthikb wrote: post #70
dfuhriman wrote: post #31

The problem you are experiencing is a result of the lack of systems and processes in your business. You need to make an important hire- you are missing a systematic. See, creatives like you are awesome at solving problems but hate to have structure and order because it doesn't allow you 100% freedom. But, as a result, you just have 100% creativity/problem solving- which is draining. The worst thing is, you can't even…

I would be interested in reading this as well...I've faced (and face) many of the same issues myself.

Read the E-myth Revisited.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#385

Post by [deleted] »

tigershark wrote: post #260
hitekker wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent advice, though I must say that > If you died in a car crash today, the company would find a way to continue. might not be the most comfortable way to describe a person's importance when they're feeling down. I would instead say "if you quit today suddenly with no warning,".

It's a common metaphor. There is also a risk measure explicitly based on this concept: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor But I guess that there are not that many buses there in US so a car crash may be more appropriate.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#386

Post by sleepingeights »

I'd say quit, but you're very close to the finish line. One of my friends found out the hard way about how corporations are, and he went through the same thing. It just sucks to work for any company in the US right now if you compare to the better work and social environments in Europe. If you compare to East-Asia it's still better. An example is Japan where their employees literally pass away while working due to their culture, or South Korea where they're immediately put into debt slavery and ruled by a tiny handful of "chiabowls".

edit: Look at YCombinator where their founders are part of that "billionaire" clique and basically helped put in Donald Trump. Them and the entire thing is a joke. They're just a bunch of fakers and liars like the rest of them, and everyone knows it.

When you figure that out, and find out what kind of stress you had to deal just to put up with their bullshit, it doesn't seem worth it at all. In the end you just get some millions, but you paid in mental health and you're lucky if not physical. It's a wonder why white folks don't go to Europe and take advantage of a much better social and work environment. It's way better than what the US provides for them. The US has no substance.

tldr; Make your millions and move to Europe (or Canada) and raise your family in a far safer and better environment. Do that if you can, before the Clowns In Action burn the 90% to the ground.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#388

Post by wccrawford »

scottbartell wrote: post #283

Are you familiar with the concept of the False dilemma[0]? It seems as if you've limited yourself to an "either/or" situation when in fact there are countless other possible solutions to this problem. Here are some possible alternatives: - find a leadership coach and/or mentor - delegate the parts of your job that you like the least - find a way to reduce stress in your life (exercise, hobby, etc) - try professional…

I don't think it's so much of a false dilemma as it was the OP's inability to find other options. They're posting here to find those options, which you've given a bunch of.

The trick for the OP now is to not just dismiss them all out of hand. I hear so many people throw advice away on the flimsiest of excuses, when just a little massaging can make them work.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#390

Post by ivanjaros »

a) take a break, month or two if you need to and appoint someone that will handle your d2d business in the meantime.

b) exercise more. I cannot stress this one out more!!!

c) wait until the company is sold and move to a new project. Negotiate that you will be only an advisor(maybe only for the following year) and find someone else as ceo.

d) do not quit without selling out. All that time you have invested in this company will go to waste. So suck it up for now.

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