These two sentences seem contradictory. Why admire an entrepreneurial Don Quixote? It's not quixotry. Quixotry is when you're delusional about it. You're quixo

These two sentences seem contradictory. Why admire an entrepreneurial Don Quixote? It's not quixotry. Quixotry is when you're delusional about it. You're quixotic if you think you still have a chance despite overwhelmingly bad odds. There's a lot of ugly work involved in shutting down a business: deciding whether to give severance packages when resources are very thin-- if no one else gets one, which is common, you shouldn't take one-- communicating painful messages, delivering what one can while morale goes to zero, managing reputations (yours and others), and then firing people who don't deserve it. There are people out there who just bolt and make it someone else's problem. Failing gracefully is very hard.