I worked my tail off for a year in China. I had two other founders/partners back in N. America -- I was the only one on-the-ground, and I was also the youngest & most inexperienced.

I basically stayed there until I was physically, mentally, and emotionally sick. I was living in my office and had no salary (expenses covered, nothing more), a tough schedule (mornings & evenings needed to get back in touch w/ N. America), my first experience in management (6 staff or so), and had almost zero encouragement from my partners, because our expenses only increased with time as we realized what we were really getting in to (China is not exactly WYSIWYG when it comes to business) -- and I had no contact with the main decision-maker, who was the only person with any real experience in what we were doing (for political reasons I had to go through founder #2 to get to founder-investor#1).

I was literally stressed out of my mind. I lost a good portion of my short-term memory (until I quit). I could no longer predict what I was able to do in the future -- no ability to manage my own commitments & performance. Forgot why I wanted to live. Took up smoking.

I kept going as long as I did because I believed in the value of "sheer persistence". I wish I'd taken more drastic action sooner.

My experience was probably not typical, and so it's probably not worth drawing generalizations from it. But -- I'm incredibly glad that I quit. Today I'm learning new things and I'm happy to be alive -- I feel like a vibrant human being again. And I'm still excited about startups... but not to the point of self-destruction.

Sometimes it's neccesary to work hard. But sometimes is not a year. One has to take life in 6 month chunks, and you only have about 140 of those. You lose one, you will never get it back. A year is two of those chunks. It's too much time to be unhappy in.

I'm one of the fastest developers I know because I was taught the technique - when things start going slow, stop, zoom out and analyse the reason why it's going slow. Then go back in, but approach things differently. This time you want to maintain the quality of work, but reduce the time spent on it. It's not difficult to optimize that.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SharpenTheSaw

BTW, this'll be familiar to anyone that's learned a musical instrument. The way you get speed in music is to slow down the tempo until it's at a level where you can easily play the piece (with a new piece, this is often 1/4 or less of actual speed). Then you work on control and rhythm only, until you've got it perfect. Then gradually bump up the tempo for as long as you can maintain control. If you start getting sloppy, slow it down and practice more at the lesser tempo. Eventually, you'll be able to play it perfectly at tempo, with a good reserve if you wanna speed it up for effect.

Glad you're feeling better.

So I'm not in the midst of a startup right now, but when it comes to my next serious effort, I can't really imagine myself doing anything else.

In my view, entrepreneurial judgment is the ability to tell the difference between a situation that's not working but persistence and iteration will ultimately prove it out, versus a situation that's not working and additional effort is a destructive waste of time and radical change is necessary.

I don't believe there are any good rules for being able to tell the difference between the two. Which is one of the main reasons starting a company is so hard.

This distinction has proven quite helpful to me. Your Andreesen quote may be the first time I've run across it elsewhere.

"Persistence isn't trying the same thing over and over. That's just annoying. Persistence is having the same goals over and over."

Experience helps a lot there. YC has gotten fairly good at it. And when we advise people to give up on some immediate goal and backtrack, they tend to listen, because we're usually pretty optimistic.

"If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it."

He is so determined that you won't believe it. So he wins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sHvWYAzIRo

Maybe it was just another brainwashing attempt by Hollywood (American values bla bla yadda yadda).

Or to apply this to startups, instead of giving it your all even at the risk of failure, you never really devote yourself to something, so you have an excuse in the case that you do fail.

(As an aside, I modded you up. Not sure who puts someone at -2 for expressing an opinion.)

I'm all about modding the people who post goatse links down into negative oblivion, but I think it kind of stifles discussion if you downmod simply because you don't happen to agree. Instead of dog-piling someone for a dissenting opinion, take the extra 30 seconds to write a response. It'll enrich the discussion.

I am under the impression that for example the theme "sacrifice yourself for the common good" is pushed excessively in Hollywood, and I consider it to be brainwashing and American-valueish. In any case, most movies have a kind of moral they want to force upon their viewers. Another common theme is adultery, where cheaters make valid "shock effect victims" (ie if somebody has to die, at least make it the cheater, he is not such a big loss for society).

This reads sort-of like an underdog movie...

"Rick had one last chance. Activated by desperation and conviction, he managed to talk himself past several secretaries and he secured a lunch date with Dr. Russ Mawby, President of the Kellogg Foundation..."

http://www.iyfnet.org/section.cfm/2/242/545

"Rick Little’s life is a testament to the power of commitment to a high vision, coupled with a willingness to keep on asking until one manifests the dream."

Yes, from Chicken Soup from the Soul

Normally it just comes from chicken stock...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey