Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
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Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
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Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#2Interesting observations about founder happiness (or lack thereof)
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#3In addition to "Remember where you came from," I'd also add: track regular, incremental progress. Entrepreneurs have a tendency to move from big win to big win, while forgetting all of the little steps that got them to that point.
Keeping track of daily or weekly progress (even as simple as iDoneThis), can help minimize the amplitude of the downswing. It will still be there. It's inevitable. But this can help take some of the sting out of the low points.
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#4Interesting observations about founder happiness (or lack thereof)
Is there any poll that show that this founder unhappiness is real?
Are founders less happy than population as a whole? Or is it that we expect founders of successful companies to be happy?
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#5Interesting observations about founder happiness (or lack thereof)
Is there any poll that show that this founder unhappiness is real? Are founders less happy than population as a whole? Or is it that we expect founders of successful companies to be happy?
I am not sure if being a founder means that you will be unhappy. Personally I feel that that by being a founder you are constantly exposing yourself to circumstances that could cause you to be "unhappy" -- there is no end to the ups and downs.
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#6If there is one thing I dislike more than self-help, it's self-help based on anecdotal evidence from one person with no background in psychology. Even more so when the title of a post states an extreme personal hypothesis as if it were a fact obvious to everyone.
If you want to know more about happiness from a scientific point of view, read or listen to experts like Daniel Kahneman. For example:
http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_exper...
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#7I always thought it was tied to the creative's dilemma: what we can imagine is amazing, yet always just beyond what we actually produce. So by the time you produce something amazing it's "old news"... and your imagination has grown 10 steps ahead.
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#8I enjoyed this little post as I really related to what he wrote, and the graphs were funny and accurate, but I think he put a bit too much emphasis on "unhappy", which I believe is not accurate. I, and other entrepreneurs I know, are not Always Unhappy. It's more like Never Happy For Long. During the upswing on the graph, I am extremely happy! Ecstatic! But then even though business (let's say) has doubled almost overnight, a month or so will go by with no new growth, and I'm just miserable, wondering how I can make something happen.
I would chalk this up to the human tendency to always want the next thing, or always want what one doesn't have. And that personality type I think is a perfect fit for a self driven risk taker entrepreneur types.
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#9Interesting observations about founder happiness (or lack thereof)
Is there any poll that show that this founder unhappiness is real? Are founders less happy than population as a whole? Or is it that we expect founders of successful companies to be happy?
I'll attest to the article's accuracy, but that's one data point. The highs from big wins are great, but the lows hit hard and often. Celebrating (even unreasonably so) small wins is particularly important to try to keep things in balance.
I have no idea how it averages out compared to non-founders and non-startup-employees, but it's a nasty roller-coaster to be sure.
Re: Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy
#10If there is one thing I dislike more than self-help, it's self-help based on anecdotal evidence from one person with no background in psychology. Even more so when the title of a post states an extreme personal hypothesis as if it were a fact obvious to everyone. If you want to know more about happiness from a scientific point of view, read or listen to experts like Daniel Kahneman. For example: http://www.ted.com/ta…
He says:
"My theory is that a founder’s happiness is tied to the rate of change of their startup’s success. In other words, your happiness graph is the first derivative of your success graph."
He is stating a theory, not a peer reviewed scientific journal. He isn't saying it is a fact, just a theory.
Personally I found his first derivative theory to be interesting and in many ways true of my life.
I know when things feel like they are about to go well, that is as enjoyable as when things are actually going well, but when they slow down I become unhappy.
If you have concrete evidence his theory is total garbage, by all means post it, but providing a random link and saying that anecdotal evidence is complete garbage is obnoxious.
Maybe someone who has the time to spend to prove the OP's theory or disproves it sees this post and it becomes a landmark paper you feel comfortable citing or reading.
It isn't the OP's job to prove it. His job is just to provide something interesting and insightful for people to read which helps get his startup's name out there. In my mind he accomplished both parts flawlessly.