@seth

Have been thinking lately about expectations.  What do investors expect of their entrepreneurs?  What do kids expect of their parents?  I am not sure if these two sets of expectations are aligned.

In my experience, investors want the following from their entrepreneurs:

• speed
• hustle
• competitiveness
• aggressiveness
• hunger

Also, in my experience, kids want the following from their parents:

• patience
• presence
• love
• kindness
• home

Not only are these values not aligned, they are actually opposite.

This would seem to reinforce the notion that entrepreneurship (or at least the conventional venture-backed model I am most familiar with in NY and in Silicon Valley) is best suited for those in their 20’s who have yet to have children.

Or those parent entrepreneurs who are somehow capable of managing these two sets of values alongside of eachother on a daily basis.

Or, sadly, those entrepreneurs who don’t fully value the needs of their children.

A friend told me yesterday of a friend of his who was at an explosively growing startup, and how much all of the employees worshipped the CEO.

On one level this CEO seemed to be treating his employees like his children.

But they weren’t there for his love, but for the opportunity to make a lot of money.  Which, I guess, they could then extract, along with their CEO, and invest in their own families along a different value set.

I am just not sure how realistic that is.