I can see what Wade is saying here, but I don't agree with the conclusion.
"So when you begin a startup, make sure to think long term. Will you still want to do this if a family member gets sick? Will you want to do this if you have kids? Will you want to do this when _____ happens?
If the answer is “no”, then you’ve saved yourself a lot of unnecessary heartache."
I think it's fine for the answer to be no to some of these, but still want to do a startup.
If your partner was hit by a bus, then in that instant almost everyone would prefer to be at some large company where you can hand off your responsibility in no time and the company will support your time off etc.
That just makes it easier to be a good person in those times. Everyone could do with a break in times like that, if it was an option.
I don't think hunting down the most severe scenarios that could happen to you in the next x years and trying to find one where you'd rather not be running a startup is a valid reason not to start one.
This is a good point. There's no sense in thinking yourself out of a startup, but at the same time it's likely something crappy will happen while running a startup.
You may want to go to a cushy job at that point in time, but you need to be able to at least be comfortable enough to say "No, I'm going to do this."
If you're terrified of a crappy situation it's a good gut call for yourself to figure out if you're cut out for being a founder or not.
"So when you begin a startup, make sure to think long term. Will you still want to do this if a family member gets sick? Will you want to do this if you have kids? Will you want to do this when _____ happens?
If the answer is “no”, then you’ve saved yourself a lot of unnecessary heartache."
I think it's fine for the answer to be no to some of these, but still want to do a startup.
If your partner was hit by a bus, then in that instant almost everyone would prefer to be at some large company where you can hand off your responsibility in no time and the company will support your time off etc.
That just makes it easier to be a good person in those times. Everyone could do with a break in times like that, if it was an option.
I don't think hunting down the most severe scenarios that could happen to you in the next x years and trying to find one where you'd rather not be running a startup is a valid reason not to start one.