I have a friend in SF who’s addicted to the startup hustle I’ve been trying to convince he should really just get a “normal” tech job for a while. It hurts to watch him struggle with money and I don’t know how feasible it is to start your own company when you yourself are barely surviving.

He's pretty lucky he's in tech and has multiple paths forward. I have friends in this situation "stuck" at law firms or "stuck" in a medical fellowship. They have now already invested 4 to 9 years and tons of debt into a career with limited realistic choices but to continue moving forward on a path they don't like (sometimes something they got pushed into by family/society/etc.)

The big insight in this post to me is learning how someone else handles a crisis of identity. Something you usually don't know you're going through until it's over and have had time to reflect.

Thanks for sharing, Frank.

I needed enough time distance to really analyze if things were making sense or not. As a generally even keel person, I didnt notice how stressed I was until I signed the offer and realized, oh yea, I was holding back a lot of my thoughts and potential.

Reading this was so refreshing. A few years ago, I shut down a startup I'd spent the past 4 years on and honestly didn't know what to do with myself. In hindsight, it was obvious I was slowly killing myself with stress but I was so attached to the company I couldn't walk away. I appreciate contributions like this to the startup/hustle narrative. Thanks for sharing, Frank!

Did you feel the stress at the time or was it a slow creep? In my case I felt like I as dealing with it fine, but realized a drastic change in how I was thinking after it was over.

If you look back now at the comments you received about limited growth potential/competition/etc, do you agree in hindsight?

Thanks for sharing your story Frank. Feelin the honesty hard. I was lucky to be on that GOAP trip with you and Doug. Microsoft just got themselves an awesome new advocate.

Frank, thank you for sharing your story. I've been in a similar situation for the last twelve years (chasing some dream, trying to make it work), and I'm finally letting it go too. Reading your post was so helpful for me (helping me know I'm not alone), and also just tremendously heartwarming because you've found stable ground after all this while. Keep being awesome.

Real talk and inspiring talk. Thank you for sharing the honest story and reflection that all in the startup world need to hear.

Had to share, it weighed me down for too long.

That was beautiful. One of the best blog posts I have seen in a while. Keep it up.

This is tough. I let go of a dream after 7 years of toil. 6 months later it came true for somebody else that I let it go too. Now to build a new reality.

True. This is the toughest lesson of life that I still have to master - learning to let go, and not feel like a failure.

That color scheme physically hurts to look at. I would like to read this, but I don't think my retinas could take it.

yea you're right, we have to work on it for sure. You can blame me :)

I liked it in that it conveys "what you're about to read is going to be something different".

Thanks for sharing! Glad you came through mentally and physically intact.