Why founders should burn the bridges

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235997

by TheAuditor • 12 years ago

3 4 12 years ago

onion2k• 12 years ago

There's a problems with this sort of blog post. It's a survivor story. The author severed the links to his old life, put everything in to his startup, and came through it successfully. But that's only one data point. There are thousands of people who have done the exact same thing and failed, and deeply regretted severing those ties. Equally, there are plenty of stories of people who didn't cut their ties to their old lives and gone on to be successful (Mark Zuckerberg being a good example - many of the first hires at FB were his friends). Consequently you can't really learn anything from it. You can't tell ahead of time whether or not cutting ties is a good idea. The implication is "If you don't cut the ties to your old life you will fail!", but that just isn't true. Even if you're more generous and read it as "If you cut the ties to your old life you're more likely to succeed" that (probably) isn't true either - having ties to things outside of your startup doesn't have a big impact compared to some of the other, much more important things (cash, market, product, etc).

It's a great story of how one founder refused to quit and created something amazing, but that's all. As a lesson in how to succeed in your startup it's not really telling you anything at all.

TheAuditor2• 12 years ago

Can't label it bad advice, because it certainly did help many and for some other it was a red line. No advice in the world of startups should be absorbed as is. :)

qwerta• 12 years ago

That is bad advice.

My wife was in 4th month of pregnancy when I founded my startup. I left my old job in good terms, and could probably return to it.

Burning bridges would put me under much more pressure. I do not think I would manage it.

TheAuditor2• 12 years ago

Nothing in a entrepreneurs life is objective. Nor can any experience be generalized. We all have to make our of decisions and work with it.

Why founders should burn the bridges

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