Even though it didnt make me rich, I consider my first startup to be successful because I took it from idea to revenue.
Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#32I failed at two startups before my current one, which is close to launch. After each failure I took a break, feeling weak and like failure just like you are. But time heals all wounds. Before too much time had passed (a couple years) the excitement (and finances) had returned, and I jumped back in the game. I feel much, much stronger for the experience of those 2 failed startups. I don't regret them one bit. Sooner o…
>> (and finances)
I've always wondered -- how does one recover from the financial setback of the initial failure? In good times, this may be easier if one either has savings or can quickly find a job to fall back on. But in times where jobs may be more scarce, how does one get through this?
Also, do the subsequent funding rounds get easier or harder? Do subsequent startup funds lean more towards VC or angel sources, assuming that one cannot save as much for the next rounds for a self-bootstrap?
I completely understand that the emotional roller-coaster must be difficult to overcome after the first setback, with a similar toll for a spouse/partner and family. How do people also overcome the financial setbacks?
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#33the best scorers in basketball have whats called shooters amnesia. They don't think about the shot they just missed. It isnt part of their reality. Focus on the next thing. don't tie your self esteem to your last shot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVXiG6oy5eo
"I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life."
In my experience, the best athletes have a spooky accurate memory of failure... post-game. They figure out what went wrong, every time it went wrong, even if the overall result was success. So it is not amnesia, it is just a failure to influence their present action.
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#34the best scorers in basketball have whats called shooters amnesia. They don't think about the shot they just missed. It isnt part of their reality. Focus on the next thing. don't tie your self esteem to your last shot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVXiG6oy5eo "I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life." In my experience, the best athletes have a spooky accurate memory of failure... post-game. They figure out what went wrong, every time it went wrong, even…
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill
Exercise and a break from the computer are both a good idea. I think you have to reflect on what happened but with some emotional distance. Remembering Thurber's observation that "humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility" you should write down your lessons learned once you can laugh about it (at least a little) so that you are not just re-opening wounds. Some amount of lateral drift (reading books, seeing folks you've neglected as your firm was failing, etc..) can also give you perspective on what to do differently next time. I had a painful failure about a decade ago and concluded "I am through with being an entrepreneur." After five years at a big company I realized that I had mis-assessed and that I couldn't help being an entrepreneur. Failing at a startup doesn't mean you should give up being an entrepreneur, but you should get some perspective on how to make "new mistakes" the next time out.
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#35While it is hard to give a personalized advice on coping with a depression, you still can benefit from the failure. As others said - learn from it.
Specifically, if you are doing something that you have a little experience with (like, say, starting a business), it is generally a good idea NOT to assume it will work out. Better yet, treat as a wild card experiment with a great risk of failure. Approach it as something that you are trying out and using to learn what works and what does not. Very few people can succeed on unfamiliar grounds and it is almost always a matter of luck. Far more people succeed through trial and error. So learn from the mistakes and try again.
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#36Take a break. Go for a jog. One technique which has worked form me is looking at a brand new problem and coding for it.
I would also recommend reading: * blog.pmarca.com * Founders At Work * Startup by Jerry Kaplan (old tome but a good read) * Bhagvad Gita, an ancient Hindu scripture which talks about work, victory, defeat (I can lend you a copy)
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#37Oh hell no! The last time I posted something inspirational here, somebody sent it to the Seattle Tech Startups mailing list, and in a couple hours it went from "inspirational Roosevelt quote" to "Teddy killed Indians" to "well Jefferson owned slaves" to "early philosophers were child molesters" to "why don't you go quote Hitler then" to "I'm glad my ancestors didn't kill any Indians" to "I looked up your family name on Wikipedia and your ancestors murdered Indians too".
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#38Think about it this way : You got about 10-20% of the total and about (70-80% of the grunt) work done for your next startup. :)
You have your servers, source code repository, development environment, bug/feature tracking stuff and all that ready. Heck, you might even have got the logging in, authentication, monitoring and all that done as well.
I would go so far as to say : Everyone should do a dummy startup just to get all the above straightened out. :)
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#39You failed. Own it. It happened. Who are you worried will find out? The people who love you already know who you are and they don't care; they still love you. The people who don't love you probably don't matter.
I agree about exercise and a change of pace in your lifestyle (backpacking, academia, even a day job). The important thing though is to realize this isn't even near the worst thing that could have happened. You can still try again. Only this time, you have more information and are better prepared to deal with adversity. This sort of thing is hard for everybody.
I look forward to reading your new startup beta announcement soon.
Re: Ask YC: Dealing with post startup depression
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
As Pmarca wrote: attempting to improve your batting average of hits versus misses is a waste of time as you progress through a creative career. Instead you should just focus on more at-bats -- more output. Link here: http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/08/age-and-the-ent.html The ratio of success to failure in tech startups ranges from 1:3 to 1:10 depending on who you read. That means pace yourself, you might have to do this…
The best way I ever heard it phrased was, "Not everyone gets a home run, but sooner or later you're bound to get hit by a ball and walked."
Yeah, but there's no dignity in that, and besides, the run may be taken away anyway.