[ackbar03]

Hahahaha I faced this exact problem as well, very good friend of mine since high school, one of the blockbuster ipos last year. Guys a billionaire

Not sure if my advice will change anything or even help but this is sort of how I handled it

1. Recognize that it's only natural to feel that way. It's not that your not happy for him and want him to fail, but your more concerned with your own progress given where he is at life. I think that might stop you feeling like your a shit person for feeling bad

2. Your problem is you feel like your wasting your time so do something about it. If you do come to the conclusion that there's not much to be done, you'll probably feel better as well. Personally I spent a lot of time reflecting on what I was doing and quit my job for my own startup. Although it wasn't a complete failure, I'm definitely financially worse off than if I had stuck to my job, but all feelings of jealousy I previously had to my friends who struck it rich doing startups were gone, since you appreciate the opportunity cost they had to give up had they chosen to go for some high paying job like banking.

[throwaway_poor]

Thanks, this is good advice. I don't have envy or jealousy but I do need to decide for myself what I want to actually do. So far I was feeling good about not playing the startup game because from the sample of my friends who gave it a shot, it felt like a lot of stress for what ended up to be moderately higher rewards at best and worse ones at the median. Now I have a very different picture of what success can look like. Then again my friend is not me and I don't have the same skills or opportunities or risk tolerance that he had so maybe the conclusion will be that I don't do anything about it. We'll see. Thanks!

[armchairhacker]

The startup game probably is a lot of stress for at best moderately-better rewards 99% of the time. I don’t doubt your friend is very smart and talented, but to get that level of success you basically need luck.

That’s not to say you can’t pursue a startup. But if you do, don’t hurt your life and burn yourself out, and recognize that the chance you’ll end up like your friend is very slim.

If you’re looking for money, i imagine that there are less risky ways to end up with a decent amount, though not several hundred million. But i don’t know, you’ll have to ask someone else. Also, recognize that money ≠ happiness, though being poor basically = unhappiness.

[null_deref]

I'm very happy that you don't feel jealousy, but I think it's natural to feel envy for some extent, I suggest accepting that those feelings are part of being human. After accepting those feeling try to think about the things you are happy about in your life, and the actions you did in order to gain them.