Comment by cookiecaper | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cookiecaper | Hacker News Reader

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I'm an entrepreneur too. I'm indicating that the philosophy you're sharing serves only the investors, and that's why they try to ingrain it into naive or inexperienced founders.

There is a problem when you allow your work to consume everything. Things are out of balance. That's true no matter how small or big the company is. It's not healthy for the founders or the employees to behave that way.

This isn't to say that one shouldn't spend a lot of time working on stuff or that strict insistence on a 40-hour week is always appropriate, but there is more to life than work, even when you're trying to get a startup off the ground!

Some equilibrium must be maintained, for the sanity of all. Specifically, delaying important familial developments like marriage and children or spending so much time engrossed in work that you become negligent of your familial responsibilities is absolutely an unfair trade, no matter how rich you get from the startup lottery (and realistically, you'll probably get 0 rich, which makes neglecting permanent, irrevocable relationships like family even less intelligent).

I understand that you disagree and would avoid hiring someone who is interested in work-life balance, and that's fine, but my belief is that this attitude is not good and you're not going to get good people with it. It artificially constrains your selection of talent to the naive and/or the desperate, neither of which make a good foundation for a company.

There are some valid points in what you are saying. But they all depend very much on tons of personal things. E.g., on your relationship with your spouse and kids. I probably got lucky, and my wife understands what I am doing and why, and why I don't spend a lot of time with her. She just accepts it, and we've been together for 13 years already. Or, say, if you enjoy doing whatever you are doing more than anything else.

I am not saying that all people should follow that. Again, my point was that there are people who try starting/running a business, who are in love with what they are doing, whom you may even call insane to a certain extent, and who expect to find (at least at early stages) people who completely share their goals, vision and beliefs. And who won't hire a person who thinks that there are things more important, regardless of whether it's their family or a weekend hiking.

I've read while ago that founders of some startup (AirBnb?) had spent about half a year to hire their first employee, and the question they typically asked the candidates was "Would you take the job if you knew you would die in a year?", or something like that. So, I personally understand and share that approach completely. As you can see, at least I am not the only person who treat these things that way.

And, again, I am not saying that it's for everyone, but people should keep in mind that it can totally be the case when they apply for a job at a startup. People are different. I agree that most of them feel about life same way you do - treating their families or some personal hobbies as higher priorities. But not all of them. Some people approach their lives differently.

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