There's an unspoken thread here that shows the benefit of startup communities, which is that they help you survive failure much more easily. It would appear tha

There's an unspoken thread here that shows the benefit of startup communities, which is that they help you survive failure much more easily. It would appear that the unsuccessful ventures didn't severely limit access to opportunities and compel him to go work for a big company. If his community had been different, or if he had listened to the well-meaning people who undoubtedly recommended that he get a 'real job', this likely wouldn't have been the case.