I don’t know what it’s like to be a great founder. But it seems to me that there is some significant sacrifice required during the achievement of greatness.
No matter how many people claim they can do it all, I have doubts. Sure, Zuck and Bezos are jacked now. And yes, Steve Jobs seemed to have been a pretty good family man in the end. But these great founders were not how they later became during the years in which they rose to greatness.
I’m not certain of what I am saying, that you can’t become a great founder without some significant sacrifice in fundamental dimensions of life such as health, relationships, and perhaps “happiness”. And it’s a dangerous idea if it’s wrong, because it is limiting upon one’s own idea of what is possible. I hesitate to share it for that reason. But what do I write for if it is not to share what I think?
I share this idea because I am as pragmatic as I am optimistic, and this is a question I have considered for a long time.
I think about it because I want to create something great, but I also want to be a great husband and a great father, and I want to live a long time, and I want to enjoy the ride. In other words, I want it all.
And the optimist in me believes all these things are possible, together in parallel, in a single lifetime. But the pragmatist doubts whether that is true. So the optimist presses forward under the assumption that I can do it all while the pragmatist looks for signs of unavoidable sacrifice.
If sacrifice was required, and you knew that up front, at least you could make a conscious choice. More generally, if you could know what your various paths in life would look like, you could choose. But of course, you can’t. That’s not what life’s about, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
So I move forward, knowing that I do not know, trusting my gut, and doing the best that I can.
The pragmatist started this writing but the optimist finishes. At the end of the day, I still believe it is possible that it is possible to do it all. I have my doubts, but without doubt, there is no place for faith. So thats what I have. Faith.
