

The Unintended Consequences of Startups - Docstoc CEO - cera
http://www.jasonnazar.com/2009/04/18/the-unintended-consequences-of-startups/

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xcombinator
In university I had a teacher specialist on industry production factories.

He said something I grabbed: "When I go to a company, in five minutes I can
see if the owners work hard or work well. When you go to a well managed
company is very boring, all things are made routine and made without effort"

If you work 20 hrs day STOP!! Your work quality/hr is very low, you make your
life hell, and your products reflect that. Start learning how to make
effective use of your time. There are specialist on that, read books, see
videos(eg Even Pagan) learn to avoid distractions, focus like a laser on what
brings value to your company(marketing:learn about people necessities ).

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stuff4ben
I keep seeing these types of articles and it's the same story over and over
again, "one must work 20 hours a day 7 days a week in order to be successful
with your startup." Is this always the case? I can't imagine it is. Surely
there are people out there who ran their startup successfully on a part-time
basis while working a full time job and enjoying quality family time.

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gruseom
From what I've observed, when people say they spend "X hours a day working"
(for some outrageously high X) what they're really talking about is how much
time they spend _at_ work, which is not the same thing. These quantitative
games are a bit silly. It reminds me of when people brag about how many lines
of code they churn out, as if that were a good thing.

There is a real issue, though. Most startups demand an intensity of commitment
that is difficult to reconcile with part-time engagement or even, it seems,
with so-called work-life balance.

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access_denied
> that is difficult to reconcile

Or even just in your head! You are constantly thinking about the project and
that stresses you out.

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mattmaroon
By losing that much weight that quickly he is actually overcompensating for
one unhealthy behavior with another. He'd be much better off trying to
sustainably eat better over a long period of time.

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mediaman
My experience in talking with people who have successfully grown startups to
medium to large sizes is that they almost universally regret their former
belief that the degree to which they worked hard was necessary to get the
company to that stage. From my own experience growing a firm from nothing to a
profitable low seven figures sales a year, I would agree.

I know that at the beginning I felt that my talent and experience was
absolutely vital to the firm's growth. That if I did not put in that extra
hour, I was robbing the company of its potential future.

The reality is that I am not that smart and not that talented. Much more
important than running around personally implementing everything is growing a
group of effective managers who take pride in their work and whom you can
trust in running your business.

I think a weakness in many internet businesses (certainly not all of them
though) is that because they are so little focused on revenue, it becomes
necessary to either (a) try to implement everything yourself, thereby saving
labor costs, or (b) spend tons of time raising money (and destroying your
ownership in the process), which deducts from time you can spend selecting and
growing your managers.

The first time I felt I realized I could leave my company for a week with no
cell phone, no BlackBerry, no Internet access, and not be terrified of what
would happen -- it was a huge relief, and that was when I began seeing the
folly of my ways. It's not about me, it's about my wonderful managers. Working
obscene hours is not the way to do that.

Of course, you shouldn't be a slacker either -- people do take cues from you
-- but as others have suggested it is far more important to develop your
firm's talent than to try to do everything yourself.

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hwijaya
At our first month of start up (not that it's been long anw), we used to work
like 17 - 18 hours a day. It doesn't take long for us to realize that this
whole thing is more of a marathon than sprint. Since then, i have been trying
to adjust my life more.

It's still not balance though. I can relate to that constant thinking and
working condition. Often, i got a friend ask me, "so, tomorrow is weekend,
what are you going to do?" and my typical answer is "work". Because, when
you're doing startup, there is no more weekdays or weekend. For me, everyday
is just the same. If i don't sleep due to biological needs, then i work.

Having said all that, now i try to balance the equation a little bit with
exercise, socialize with family and friends. After all, most of the time, the
"quantum leap" in our business concept are discovered during that "downtime".

Beside, why are we working so hard anyway in the first place? I don't want to
lose all my family and friends or key moments in my child's life, while my
startup make it. I think this fallacy is well described by Marshall Goldsmith
in his book "What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People
Become Even More Successful" about goal obsession. I read it years ago and
think it's a great book for most of us here in HN, dare to say, A personality.

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xcombinator
As Mikhail Gorvachev wrote in his book "Perestroika" the big problem with the
Soviet Union was its mentality: "More work=better" "More materials
used=better" "More time spent=better" "More effort applied=better"

People cared more about "looking" hard working, that about the actual product
itself.

He learned looking at capitalist that naturals were rewarded (people that make
some things "effortless"). In communism talented were bad seen.

"Less work doing the same= better"

If something did what it had to do with half the work it was considered twice
better, not twice bad.

Look at this, I was in a big company that valued programming work per lines of
code written!!. This is like valuing the worth of a plane by weight in direct
proportion.If my code works with ten time less code,its really much better.

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Harj
this is the same mentality i had while working on my first startup and it's a
fallacy. the most productive startup founders i know have activities/interest
outside of work and aren't anywhere close to this extreme.

neglecting your health is not a badge of how hard you work. one of my startup
investors, chris sacca, recently told me he's weary of founders who don't
exercise regularly. exercise is a net gain.

i really urge more people to read this blog post from naval ravikant before
launching into endless 14 hour "work" days -
[http://www.startupboy.com/journal/2005/11/29/the-80-hour-
myt...](http://www.startupboy.com/journal/2005/11/29/the-80-hour-myth.html)

