I appreciate what you are saying, but I can not take the full responsibility for helping other people realize that they are making a mistake. The bulk of the re

I appreciate what you are saying, but I can not take the full responsibility for helping other people realize that they are making a mistake. The bulk of the responsibility has to stay with them. Each one of us is responsible for the extent to which we stay in touch with the reality of the situation we face. Mind you, I've dealt with some folks who seemed determined to avoid facing up to some painful truths, especially when things go badly. And in those cases, I think sometimes a certain amount of frankness is called for, even if that seems negative. I've written abut this before, talking about a real business that I had to deal with: http://www.teamlalala.com/blog/2009/04/06/the-importance-of-having-a-negative-attitude/ http://www.teamlalala.com/blog/2009/04/06/the-importance-of-... I hope you won't mind if I share a personal story with you. Its about when my father died of cancer. The thing is, when he was dying, my mom and I were deep in denial about it. Every time a doctor said something ambiguous, we would interpret in the most positive way possible. And the doctors and nurses we dealt with avoided being frank with us, because they worried that would be rude. They worried about hurting our feelings. But in the end, when my dad died, my mom and I were caught off guard and unprepared. And in retrospect, I realized, what we needed was for some doctor to be brutally, awfully, harshly honest with us. None of the doctors we dealt with had the courage to do it. And of course, to some extent, my denial is my own responsibility. The only fault that can attach to the doctors is the fault of not giving us information clearly. So, nowadays, when I deal with entrepreneurs, I try to be as honest with them as I wish the doctors had been with me. It's a gift to be that honest. If the entrepreneurs want to call me negative, then perhaps they don't deserve the gift that I'm trying to give. But I try to behave the way I wanted the doctors to behave: brutally, awfully, harshly honest.