I wrote that article because I’m experiencing few things that I wanted to share. I’m working on starting a startup, handling all marriage and day job responsibilities. I find it very challenging, but I still push myself because it’s my character flaw – that I want to start a startup. To make this happen, I’m also looking for building a founding team. For that, I’m talking to few people who shared their interest of starting a startup.

Whenever I talk to some young professional, the most common observation I have seen is – almost everyone wants to start a startup, literally almost everyone. But the fact is – they just don’t know what it takes to make it work — the insane hard work at initial stages. They just talk about success stories, but when it comes to put the time and build stuff, they disappear. And that’s how I got inspired to share this thought on my blog.

I am not saying we should take that advice seriously and stop working on our dreams. That advice was more for those people who “think” they want to start a startup, but probably don’t understand the reality to make it happen.

- Aditya, (Adeologue)

It’s only the ridiculous sub-reality in the valley which is having people believe this is not possible. All these college dropouts hoping to become the next Google and going for the big payout, well… they would probably sell their souls to make this happen, let alone give up any existence outside their “startup”.

Finding something you love doing, finding a way to make some money while doing it and turning this into your main stream of income, does absolutely NOT means you have to kiss your social life/family life goodbye!

Ilia

Keeping in mind that no one wished they had spent more time at the office on their deathbed, Tullman notes “Family is important because it’s a much more important extension of ourselves than any work we’ll ever do. There’s always more work but you’ve only got one family.” which is certainly counter to Currier’s approach of subordinating family to startup.

More on the book
http://www.amazon.com/You-Need-Be-Little-Crazy/dp/079318018X/

More on Barry Moltz
http://www.barrymoltz.com/

Two blog entries I wrote relative to Moltz’s book
http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2006/12/27/you-need-to-be-a-little-crazy/
http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/10/16/the-challenge-of-advising-entrepreneurs/

Moltz himself observes “Entrepreneurs start businesses because..they have no choice. Passion and energy drive them on good days and sustain them on bad days.” I agree with his assessment: sometimes we pursue our dreams and sometimes they pursue us, but in neither case do most entrepreneurs have a real choice.

Passionate people can be high-risk takers in the eyes of others though passionate people themselves don’t realize this.

One more advice I will certainly add is to start a business as a side project or hobby. Don’t get too involved and don’t base your projects with success stories in mind because your project is starkling different from theirs and the circumstances in which you started are different from theirs too.

The reason why most people talk about success stories is that it can motivate others to try sth out. I don’t know any parents telling their kids you are going to fail when they are about to take an exam. Let others learn by their own mistakes is more reasonable than discouraging them from trying. Making mistakes and correcting them is what makes a mature entrepreneur.