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Ask HN: Looking for advice – Failed startup, long term relationship at same time

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Ask HN: Looking for advice – Failed startup, long term relationship at same time

#1
Spent the last 12 months on a startup that's basically failed and over the last 2 months fallen into a dark and lonely place. I'm typically an upbeat and positive person, but this failure has taken a bit of a toll. All of the family and friends money is gone. I feel guilty. I'm in tons of debt and have constant waves of disbelief at how I actually got into this spot. Especially as it's all self-inflicted.

Adding another layer, my long term relationship with my gf just ended. We were together for 8 years.

Looking for advice from other founders that have gone through some dark days. Preferably over email or IM

Re: Ask HN: Looking for advice – Failed startup, long term relationship at same time

#6
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” - Teddy Roosevelt

...now pick yourself up and try again.

Re: Ask HN: Looking for advice – Failed startup, long term relationship at same time

#7
I'm not sure if this will help or not, but this is my story of failure: http://christopherbull.name/2014/06/19/three-years/

Feel free to email me, can be found through my blog. It sucks and is crushing, there's no way around that. Things get better though, often this can be like being set free - it certainly was for me.

My advice - though my situation wasn't anywhere near as complex so I'm not going to pretend to fully understand what you're going through - is to reach out to your friends and move forward somehow, whether that's into exercise, a new job, or something similar. Find something to keep yourself busy and people who will do the same.

Also, remember one important thing, even if you don't quite believe it right now: You're going to be OK.

Re: Ask HN: Looking for advice – Failed startup, long term relationship at same time

#8
As with all personal advice, all I can offer is my perspective, so take from it what you can and ignore the rest.

In life, we move through multiple contexts that support us: Friends, family, relationships, careers, intellectual movements, social clubs, et cetera. Typically, when we fail in one of these contexts, we can rely on our success in the other areas to sort of "justify" or "rationalize" our experience. We say -- my family life has suffered, but it was necessary to achieve the career success I have purposefully sought. Or, we say -- my career is taking off, so I need to abandon old friends and move on to a higher caliber of social groups. Thus, we can say our psychological stability relies on the breadth of our "support network" -- any one node can fail, but if we've led a balanced life, we can rely on the others to see us through.

What you're going through is the worst sort of crisis; when multiple nodes fail at once. Specifically, in regards to women, I have seen this pattern over and over again -- a relationship built on a particular arrangement of perceived success, ultimately, boils down to building your foundation on a house of cards.

There's good news out of all of this. You have two useful interpretations of what happened here: Find a woman who will stick by you through good times and bad; or let go of the notion that a single woman can be a support network at all. I am currently struggling with this dilemma in my personal life, but I have seen examples of success with both.

Regardless of the shape of your own support network, there is one particular node I've found that remains stronger and constant than all of the others: My personal relationship with God. YMMV.

Edit: If you're in the bay area, I'm here for another week or so. Feel free to reach out. Email's in profile.

Re: Ask HN: Looking for advice – Failed startup, long term relationship at same time

#9
Been here. It's the pits.

The more I see these kinds of posts (and I'm seeing them a lot lately), the more I think we need a community specifically for this stuff. Where we talk about the difficulties of entrepreneurship, and how terrible it gets. Where you must be this damaged to enter.

Because frankly, I don't think HN itself is the right place to talk about how many times I've tied a noose.

If I had more time I would start something like this.

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