> - Suck it up and work on the same thing for 2-5 more years
Why do you assume you have to work on it for 2-5 more years?
It's pretty common for founders to quit within a year or two of an acquisition.
Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
181–190 of 527 posts
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#182Do not talk to your wife. Talk to your best friend, talk to your parents, talk to a therapist, don't talk to your wife. Your wife loves you so if you say you are depressed, she will be understanding and let you lay in bed all day if you want. She will make meals for you, she will do the chores around the house because she wants to help you and you feel too tired to do those things. But depression will only get worse…
Heh my wife certainly wouldn't let me do that.
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#183> I'd been mulling over a third option (hire someone to do my day-to-day)
Don't do this. It's the easiest way to be exited on not your conditions. From personal experiences. Just quit now on your conditions and name someone else as CEO. It always easier than it seems to gain domain knowledge. On a personal level, reading stoicism philosophers helped a lot too. If it's actually about your state of mind and not the job itself, that can trigger a switch to liking sucking it up if you decide to continue.
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#184> First, talk this over with your wife. She deserves to know what's going on with you and you need her counsel and strength.
Only if she's the type. Many women, for better or worse, will NOT be happy to hear this and will silently freak out, assuming the worst.
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#185The 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…
This, exactly. I recently hired an assistant and the way that my mind was freed up was insane.
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#186Quit. Life's too short to spend it doing something you don't love.
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#187This sounds like a fairly classic case of burnout, which you've probably gathered from reading the other comments here. There's good news and bad news in that. On the good news: there are some short-term fixes you can pursue that will probably help a lot. * Antidepressants, while I don't think they're a long-term solution for anybody with exogenous depression (i.e. you're not someone with a chemical imbalance in your…
Stay away from antidepressants. At least research heavily before considering this path - they have really bad side affects including addiction.
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#188Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can confirm - right now I personally work as a "Party Associate" at Party City - not very stress free. Customers can be very specific with what they want. Running a startup sounds like a dream - I'd much rather have your job, even if I still had to keep my $9.75/hour. (Anyone looking for a college sophomore eagle scout in the MN area for the summer?) (gallerdude@gmail.com)
This is interesting. What part of running a startup sounds like a dream?
The part where investors fall over themselves to throw vast amounts of money at you?
Of course, being a dream, this doesn't happen to the vast majority of startups...
Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore
#190> First, talk this over with your wife. She deserves to know what's going on with you and you need her counsel and strength. Only if she's the type. Many women, for better or worse, will NOT be happy to hear this and will silently freak out, assuming the worst.
That's ridiculous.
1) that's an idiotic stereotype. Men and women both will react in similar ways.
2) Doesn't make a difference what "type" of person she is. They are married and she has every right to know (and voice her opinion on) if a big part of their financial future will be impacted by him feeling burned out. Hopefully she'll be supportive, but either way she deserves to know the truth.