My immediate concern is your definitions of success, growth, and self-sacrifice. You have narrowed your discussion to a person working a startup, but you have

My immediate concern is your definitions of success, growth, and self-sacrifice. You have narrowed your discussion to a person working a startup, but you have chosen too broad of language. Instead of growth, I think you should have use the idea of investment. One chooses how you to spend his time, and that may be in learning new tools, creating a product, or non-work related things. Self-sacrifice is the key to producing strong personal relationships, and not something that should be rejected based on a faulty association with time spent in business. Whether one works for himself or another, it is not self-sacrifice; rather, it is toward the reward. Self-sacrifice for personal reward is no longer self-sacrifice. Success in business or wealth (which seems to be your focus) may be completely unrelated to other people's definitions of success. One may choose not to invest his time toward monetary success because he defines success not by becoming rich but by enjoying strong relationships with his family. Note that I am not saying that one cannot be "successful" at both, but there are many who have become wealthy to the detriment of everything I would consider success. To me they are wealthy or well-known, but truly failures. Acting for the benefit of others does not have to be to one's own detriment, and relationships without self-sacrifice are ultimately doomed.