My open source startup is failing and I’m taking it personally. I feel like everything in my life is going wrong and is out of my control, and I’m starting to resent the success I see around me. I fantasize about hurting myself, but won’t, of course.

If you feel like hurting yourself you should take a break and go outside.

As a struggling founder I find myself being cynical and trollish. I go online and bitch in comments about how some ideas are stupid and how silly con valley is rigged.

Then I go back to coding and hope to make it big in silly con valley.

this small scale issue might be an issue on a larger scale down the road

and then you'll know how to solve it. Thing is..... you don't know the solution to solve it in the present. This might require a very long hike somewhere. Business should never be life or death. It's just a game. A mental game.

Universe is Mental, period

Making money out of open source is really really hard. Think about OpenSSL. Open source security suite used by every Fortune 500 company in the world barely making enough to sustain one full-time developer last time I checked.

Failing is much more valuable than success. Success wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for failure. Pivot and keep on pushing.

Ash

@askinakhan1

You never had control from the beginning; never did. Sooner you realize that the better. You need to be in it for the right reason and for the passion, the calling. All else will fall into place.

My startup is doing OK, still might be successful, but I feel like shit. Right there with you. Hang in there.