If the Shoe Fits: Rollercoasters and Responsibility
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here.
Last week KG shared a quote from Marc Andreessen.
“First and foremost, a start-up puts you on an emotional rollercoaster unlike anything you have ever experienced. You flip rapidly from day-to-day – one where you are euphorically convinced you are going to own the world, to a day in which doom seems only weeks away and you feel completely ruined, and back again.
Over and over and over.
And I’m talking about what happens to stable entrepreneurs. There is so much uncertainty and so much risk around practically everything you are doing. The level of stress that you’re under generally will magnify things to incredible highs and unbelievable lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude.
Sound like fun?”
It’s likely Marc wrote this with founders in mind, but it applies to all employees, as well as those whose lives are connected in whatever way — spouses, kids, relatives, friends, etc.
Actually, it is worse for them, because they rarely have a full picture of what’s going on.
Sometimes that’s good; workers need to concentrate on their work.
But they also need to know when difficulties arise; they need to know if their job may be going south.
They need honesty and transparency from the person they’ve chosen to follow and whose vision they are working to make real.
It’s part of the social contract Matt wrote about a few years ago.
It’s Zach Ware’s focus about what to do when a startup needs to close.
It’s what the founders of Shift and WrkRiot chose not to do — to the total detriment of the people who trusted them.
It’s my recommendation regarding bad news.
It’s on you because it’s your rollercoaster, your responsibility to do the safety checks and your job to notify people before it jumps the track.
Image credit: HikingArtist
