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Comment by rewward | Hacker News Reader

Three things.

1) Success is a fashion, and a very dynamic and fickle one. Opinions of success (your own and everyone else's) are constantly changing. While it might seem today others are beating you, tomorrow could be your day in the press without you doing anything differently. This should help you see how little opinions of success really matter.

2) You are in control of the fashions you choose to follow and how you let them affect you.

3) Entrepreneurship is tough, and this is one of the reasons. The feeling will never get better; you'll find the more "successful" you are the worse it gets. Learn to accept this feeling and leverage it rather than fight it.

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Thank you! Why do you think it gets worse with "success"? That seems counter-intuitive!

One, because "success" often comes with more responsibility and less choice. More people depend on you, in more ways, and you can't let them down if you want to keep your "success".

You might find it annoying to unfollow your successful acquaintances, but imagine how it feels to be on the other end, with multiple investors threatening to pull funding and kill your company when your "social media presence" is waning -- and you can't even express your frustration on Twitter because that would be company suicide.

Secondly, it gets worse because your standards of comparison change. You compare upwards to people with even more success. And, since "success" metrics are exponentially distributed, so is the gap that you feel between the people more "successful" than you.

"comes with more responsibility and less choice"

As everything in life - YOU are the one limiting yourself. If you feel pressure from society to do or avoid some decisions, then you shouldn't be in that position in the first place. Only strongest successful people can remain their autonomy despite investors and fame.

Look what people from Uber do. Steve Jobs, E-harmony folks or even GoDaddy owner. We disagree with their decisions and even sometimes boycot their companies - but they often remain unwilling to change.

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