I think this article says a lot about the tribulations of doing your first startup from scratch. I particularly love this part:

"Here’s what people never tell you about startup life. A lot of it is mundane, boring, grunt work. Imagine being stuck in an MMO game where you’re grinding levels without knowing whether you’ll ever make it beyond that 2 by 4 patch of 8bit forest waiting and slaying the same stupid monsters over and over again and then going back in for respawn."