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Comment by gallerytungsten | Hacker News Reader

re: "Bob was in the wrong business, not the wrong market. He wanted certainty, comfort and security."

This is a key point of difference between those who are cut out for startup life and those who are not.

I think comfort can be provided in some measure by having savings or at least being dept-free. Also being relatively employable, should things go bad, may also provide a degree of security. Perhaps certainty is the only thing that can't be hedged?

Been debt-free, employable I have gone through the painful experience of failing. It isn't about your mechanical abilities being challenged, i.e. skills and ability to pay the bills, it's more about the astounding realization that "I cannot make it" thing. To be disappointed with yourself is much more painful than slavery IMO and is usually the cause of depression.

Me too, all of the above. How did you get over it?

Nothing special - got employed, needed to feed the family. Started to plan on the next action :)

The very first startup I was in (as an early employee) went IPO in the late 90s. My next startup (where I was a founder) crashed and burned in the tech bust that followed. The crash was beyond my control, however failure was incredibly hard to deal with for the reason you mentioned.

I did the obvious thing, got a real job, saved cash etc. Things have obviously changed dramatically since then in terms of ease of starting one's own project, so I've been plugging away at mine for a while.

I have to admit though that I do find myself thinking like "Bob" sometimes because I want desperately to avoid another f-up. I've gotten around it by having a key team of advisers/mentors that have done startups successfully. I challenge their opinions sometimes, but generally listen to what they say.

Its also very easy to over-analyze something until you don't know what's up or down.

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