When someone says, "Man, that place is great; I wish I could work there," and you respond with, and I quote from your original post, "Start your own, run it lik

When someone says, "Man, that place is great; I wish I could work there," and you respond with, and I quote from your original post, "Start your own, run it like you want it to be run," that is a kneejerk response. And you weren't "harshly attacked." You were called out for putting too much into the cult of the startup. And yes, at the beginning, you do have to put in those hours. Ask the people who started Basecamp; in the beginning they did put in those hours. Once those hours were no longer necessary, then they eased back.