Are builders so busy building businesses that starting a family isn’t a priority?
Most of my classmates from elementary school, high school, and university have been married for a long time and have had kids for at least 4 – 5 years.
But none of them started a business. They got jobs, their shift ends at 5 on Friday, and then they go enjoy their free time.
And then there are founders trying to build a business.
About 70% of the people I know from this environment don’t have a family, even though at their age, someone might normally already have a teenager at home.
Which kind of makes sense if you're a founder:
– you’re trying to grow the company even in your “free” time
– you have fewer opportunities and less time to meet people
– if you’re a solo founder, you have to do everything yourself
[I’m not even talking about women who want to become founders; there’s also a biological time limit.]
Is it just my impression that this group of people has their life mission and priorities somewhere else?
Or am I just in a bubble?
Replies
Murror
I think about this a lot. Building something takes up a weird amount of mental and emotional space, even when you are not technically "working." And the loneliness of that path is real but rarely talked about honestly.
Most founders I know are not choosing business over family on purpose. It is more like the intensity of building makes deep personal connections harder to form and maintain. You are always half somewhere else.
That isolation is actually what got me started on Murror, trying to help young people who feel disconnected. Turns out a lot of us building things are quietly dealing with the same thing.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@astrovinh IMO, I haven't found a healthy line/balance to juggle both, somehow feel that I would fail in one of those so I chose something where I am more responsible for outcomes and not dependent on someone else.
Not a bubble at all. I'm building in the dating/social space and this is literally the problem I see every day - founders have less time to meet people, and when they do, traditional dating apps waste what little time they have with endless swiping. The real issue isn't that founders don't want connection, it's that the tools for finding it haven't adapted to how builders live.