
At what point during development of your startup is it ok to start losing sleep, friends, socializing?  - twism

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jmtame
I've found that becoming more disconnected frees me from wasting time. In
college, the time spent socializing can become a huge and excessive waste of
time. Granted, I'm bombarded with "you have the rest of your f___ing life to
work" (one of my professors pulled me aside and told me that), and the usual
"you should make college the funnest time of your life!" (according to the
hippy generation of people who probably just miss getting high during their
youth and being rebelious)

Anyway, I consider what people tell me and then make my own decisions. I'm
slowly disconnecting myself from my friends, and I don't see that as a bad
thing. I see it as a way to focus my concentration entirely on my startups.

It depends on how much you value your friends versus how much you value your
startup. You're going to marry one of them, so you'll need to figure that out
at some point.

Some people say you can do both, but it's like getting married in my opinion.
Once you get married, you can't keep hanging out with all your old friends
like you always did. You're committed to someone (or your startup) from that
point on, and unless you really put in the time and work at it, it probably
won't work. I can think of very few things that work by just casually doing it
on the side (ie Facebook). Even in that case, Zuckerberg is an entrepreneurial
individual and had a strong interest in programming.

This is all coming from a college kid who has never been married, though. I
speak not from experience, but from observation ;)

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brlewis
Change your idea into one your friends would be interested in. I'm socializing
more now.

Start losing sleep tonight, then two days from now decide whether it was a
good idea or not. It depends on you.

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AF
Never. Think about what you are asking. The probability of anyone's startup
succeeding is miniscule. And if doesn't succeed and you've sacrificed friends
and who you are, what have you become? Miserable.

Don't let a business and money consume your life.

~~~
twism
I feel like ive invested way too much time to slow down... But im actually out
with friends at whiskeys in boston... First time in months. Getting
hammmered... Wohooo

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davidw
You have to keep some balance, I think. Tone things down some, sure, but:

1) Your body needs sleep.

2) In the end, you'll probably just waste time you would have spent with
friends here or somewhere else.

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zaidf
Generally, sooner the better. But here is the twist: if your startup is part
of the social network bandwagon, you can't get THAT disconnected from friends
and the outside world.

