[biot]

  > What happened next was a hard wake up call for two young entrepreneurs who were
  > ready to start working on their startup and something I hope any entrepreneur,
  > parent or kid never experiences in their life.

Oh come on. The death of one's children is something to hope nobody experiences. These kids got a little rejection therapy and didn't even have to buy the set. You hope nobody learns the value of persistence in the face of adversity? Do you expect them to be able to go through life always getting exactly what they want?

A few years down the road, maybe you'll be chronicling a 15 year old Ben asking Susie to go on a date. Will Susie's rejection be a hard wake-up call that you hope nobody ever experiences in their life?

Instead, pull them aside and offer a little bit of mentorship. Tell them that this is exactly the same thing that white men with MBAs go through when they come up with an idea (it's the next Facebook!) and no hacker joins them either. Show them this site, where we developers mock rich privileged kids who think their ideas are zomg awesome: http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/ Teach them that ideas are a dime a dozen and that if they can't code and they still want to prove themselves, then they're going to have to roll up their own sleeves and get to work showing people why they theirs should be taken seriously. Teach them that they're NOT entitled to automatic help because of their age and skin color, but that they need to earn it.

But hoping that they never learn any hard life lessons? Ridiculous.

[seats]

Hyperbole yes, but I think he was just trying to describe the sensation as a spectator.

I can imagine it was truly cringe worthy to watch their little faces slowly realize what is happening. Of course you hope for all children to learn important (and therefore probably hard) life lessons, but your human instinct as a spectator, and more-so as a parent or teacher) is that you somehow wish that it would have gone down differently, that they wouldn't have dropped the ball, or forgotten their lines, or gotten picked last.

I don't see any reason to chastise someone for expressing that wish. Also, give him credit for doing precisely what you say he should have. He gave encouragement, tried to help pick them back up and get them engaged on their real work instead of moping.