His personal life very much had bearings on his professional life. People are very much affected at work by what they do outside of it, and vice versa. Positive

His personal life very much had bearings on his professional life. People are very much affected at work by what they do outside of it, and vice versa. Positively speaking, the tough times in his personal life may have proven to be the sort of motivation that inspires people to do great things. Negatively speaking, perhaps if he'd been able to spend more time working on Reddit at the start, they'd be in an even better off position than they are now. But we'll never know. Regardless, while it is more extremely apparent in a startup, people's personal lives leak into their professional lives and vice versa. Something as small as the breakfast that you ate (or didn't) this morning affects your decisions and capabilities. When it comes to the bigger events in life, like family deaths, the repercussions in people's professional lives are quite significant. Hell, studies have shown that when men perform jobs that are too easy for them, their testosterone levels drop. That's a clearcut case of seemingly insignificant professional decision leaking into your personal life as testosterone levels affect so many personal choices.