Those goals aren't really personal ones though. If you want to build a successful startup, you pretty much have to work very hard, network, build influence etc.

Those goals aren't really personal ones though. If you want to build a successful startup, you pretty much have to work very hard, network, build influence etc. - I doubt YC/SV promotes this as a particular road to self-happiness though, and in that sense it's not that contradictory. If your primary goal is happiness (both maximisation of, and minimisation of unhappiness), I would lay a fair bet that a start-up is one of the most unlikely to succeed, even in the long term.