
Why Startup Founders are Always Unhappy - jesskah
http://www.jessyoko.com/blog/2012/11/07/why-startup-founders-are-always-unhappy/
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diego
If 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...](http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html)

~~~
wtvanhest
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.

~~~
geuis
It's not a theory, it's a hypothesis. Something doesn't become a theory until
it can be experimentally tested from which inferences and conclusions can be
formed.

~~~
wtvanhest
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theory?s=t>

Her* sentence fits the second definition of theory.

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kloncks
I never understand this. Where are all these unhappy founders?

I'm a startup founder myself and I naturally know many others. This is the
best thing that could have ever happened to me. Yes, it's stressful. No, I
don't know what will happen tomorrow. Yes, it's a lot of work.

But I can tell you one thing. I wake up every day wanting to do one thing: go
to the office and work until midnight. Again, this is the best thing that has
ever happened to me.

And every other startup founder that I know is the same way.

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turoczy
In 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.

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rdl
I've been a startup founder of one form or another for pretty much my whole
adult life.

I have stress or anxiety when things are up in the air (positive or negative),
but happiness or unhappiness has a lot more to do with factors other than the
startup. Mostly because I believe in expected value and statistics -- there's
a lot of randomness in everything, and you can do things which influence
probabilities substantially, but if you've done that and there's an 80% chance
of a good outcome, the actual result doesn't mean you're doing well or poorly
as much as whether the odds were 80% or 30%.

My goal is to try to use skill, connections, effort, etc. to raise the
expected returns as much as possible, then just take a lot of shots to get the
right returns. Worry before things are resolved, not after.

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radley
I 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.

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D_Alex
"I'm generalizing from one example, here, but everyone generalizes from one
example. At least, I do."

\- Vladimir Taltos (<http://dragaera.wikia.com/wiki/Vlad_Taltos>, see also
<http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/>)

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ftwinnovations
I 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.

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RVijay007
First article I've seen approaching emotional state in this manner, so kudos
to that. Back at MIT, I also came to this realization and my friends and I
used to say "it's all about the ddt" whenever life got us down (or even up, as
a cautionary tale to not get too excited and watch out). We were of course
referring to d/dt of life, and how that had more influence on our states than
the absolute position of our lives. Nothing proven, but an observation that
held up very well in all our lives. We still have this saying amongst
ourselves - glad to see others thinking along this path now.

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josephagoss
This can be applied to all life. Sorry but founders are now sounding like
doctors, thinking they have a monopoly on stress and ups and downs.

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pauljburke
I don't think unhappy is the right word (and even the post doesn't claim the
always part) but the first line of Derman's book springs to mind as a partial
explanation.

"Ambition is a state of permanent dissatisfaction with the present - Emanuel
Derman"

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sardonicbryan
As someone who was early stage at a startup, I appreciate the reminder to stop
and smell the roses. As someone who's been grinding for four years now, it's
easy to forget how far you've come.

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mbesto
I always never use the words 'always' and 'never'. They are always never true.

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jonathantrevor
Interesting observations about founder happiness (or lack thereof)

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necrecious
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?

~~~
Firehed
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.

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rogerclark
pretty sure it's because they're all mentally ill, delusional, narcissistic
egomaniacs with technology addictions and nothing meaningful to live for
besides Y Combinator

~~~
pauljburke
Up until the final clause of that sentence I didn't have a problem with it
(well as a blanket statement it is pretty snarky but a touch of monomania
combined with massive self belief isn't necessarily a bad thing when running a
startup). All of that can work for you in the right environment.

