Dave Kashen asks whether founders build startups to escape shame or sadness. He argues that recognizing which difficult emotions you avoid, and actually feeling them, leads to greater freedom and fulfillment.
You're realizing in some way you've organized your entire life to avoid sadness. I think that's a really profound and important insight, right? And I think most people, so just for anyone listening, it's worth reflecting on like, which emotions have you organized your entire system and life and personality to avoid feeling? And when you start to recognize that and start like you are to, uh, welcome that feeling, all of a sudden you gain a ton of freedom. Yeah. Because you no longer have to re— you know, and it is interesting to think about how many founders might be doing the entire, you know, their entire startup to avoid some kind of sense of shame or not feeling good enough or, um, you know, heartbreak or some feeling that they don't want to feel. And if that's where you're coming from, it's never gonna ultimately be fulfilling. Right.
