

My co-founder is a pothead - mudil

My co-founder, who also happens to be my brother, is a chronic pot user. This is getting to the point that it significantly interferes with our business development and progress.<p>He wakes up late, sometimes 1-2 pm. He lacks any desires to develop the site, to come up with new features or plans. My ideas are dismissed by him because new features/plans mean more work for him.  Everything he does relating to our business has absolute lack of interest on his part. Ironically, he makes his living of the site, and I don't. (I am well compensated at my full time job, so the website is a sidekick for me.)<p>What can I do with him? How do you deal with colleagues like that? It is getting to the point that I fear I will disavow him one day and we will loose the site...
======
SlipperySlope
Thirty years ago I smoked pot that I grew myself every day for a couple of
years. I have been straight for twenty years, and what made me that way was
the choice between dreaming of accomplishments, and the reality of actually
accomplishing goals.

Pot is a distraction for someone in a startup. You might confront your brother
and compel him to make a choice. I suppose that he must be separated from his
friends and social situations in which he smokes pot. He should strengthen his
character to derive pleasure more from his work.

~~~
mudil
Thirty years ago pot was very different from what it is today. I suppose, I
have to agree, I have to make him face a choice. But then what? If he doesn't
change, do I leave or force him to leave?

~~~
SlipperySlope
If he does not change, then if you can make him leave with estrangement, then
I suggest making him leave. Otherwise the business is ruined but the sibling
relationship may endure.

------
brudgers
Your pothead brother makes his living off the site - i.e. it is a lifestyle
business and that lifestyle is...well, pothead.

I don't get the impression that his being a pothead was something you were
unaware of going into it.

------
rdtsc
> My co-founder, who also happens to be my brother

There is your problem. Out of all the family- and friend- run businesses I
know most end ruining the business and the family (or friendship).

~~~
mudil
What about Coen brothers? They make pretty good movies.

~~~
mudil
Well, I kinda agree with you, especially since he is a younger brother. But
the truth of matter, the problem is in his pot smoking, and not in family-run
business. There are plenty of family businesses (from Coen brothers to small
shops in Calcutta), and they generally do OK.

~~~
kls
_the problem is in his pot smoking_

I tend to disagree, drug use is usually only a symptom of a problem. His
problem seems to be lack of motivation. He may be masking that lack or his
internal disappointment with himself for it with his use of drugs.

In my life I know an individual who smokes pot, she is also one of the most
productive people I know. The problem is most assuredly not the pot, it is the
lack of motivation. The pot may be contributing to it, but it is not 100%
responsible for the lack of motivation, there are internal issues at play,
some of which could be self worth or just out and out laziness.

