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The rate of suicide for founders is significant, it is not talked about enough.
by dsugarman 11y ago
The rate of suicide for founders is significant, it is not talked about enough.
- muzz 11y agoTrue, although he was not a founder
- scrollaway 11y agoI think it can be extended to "[the suicide rate amongst] people who give a huge part of their life onto a particular entity or product".
- throwaway13337 11y agoOr could it be more accurately "the suicide rate among people who wrap their self worth in their financial success".
- hkmurakami 11y agoI think SV is even more perverse because there are plenty of cases where people are chasing some nebulous definition of "success" that is not tied to financial success. If it's just financial success and you're a very sharp, bright person, be a quant trader at a prop trading firm or something similar.
- throwaway13337 11y agoPeople say this - that being a founder isn't a the best path to being rich - and it's definitely true. The popular culture, however, points to the tech area as the source of the new rich. If you want to be the new rich today, you found a tech company. You're right, though, that there is also an element of success is more than about financial success today. Not just in the valley but in the privileged world that it is peppered with. We don't want to just be rich - we want respect.
- hkmurakami 11y agoCompletely agree. Being rich isn't good enough. You have to be rich and have had to done something to "change the world" (barf) along the way to be truly cool.
- AndrewKemendo 11y agoAs a (not yet suicidal) founder, I'd love to see some numbers if you have access to any.
- rgbrenner 11y agoThis study covered mental health issues of entrepreneurs (results summary starts on page 13): http://www.michaelafreemanmd.com/Research_files/Are%20Entrepreneurs%20Touched%20with%20Fire%20(pre-pub%20n)%204-17-15.pdf http://www.michaelafreemanmd.com/Research_files/Are%20Entrep... From the study, if you're an entrepreneur, you are more likely to have a mental health issue (49%) than not (48%). Significantly higher rates of suicide, depression, etc. It's higher across the board. But it isn't just from the stress of starting a company.. entrepreneurs are more likely to have close relatives with mental health issues too. I wasn't able to find much other than that... so if anyone else has more links, I would be interested in reading them.
- AndrewKemendo 11y agoGood info, thanks. Makes a lot of sense that ADHD would be prevalent.