| So just what was your goal? You don't really seem to have thought this through. This is a case of "Be careful what you wish for. You might get it." You started a company, convinced your friends to join you, and Lo! Your company has been successful. Now you have to run the thing, and you're discovering you don't like it. What did you expect? If your company hadn't succeeded, it would be dead and gone,and all the folks you convinced to work with you would have suffered. In fact, it hasn't failed, and those who threw in with you haven't suffered. This is presumably what you wanted when you started your firm in the first place. Agreed, you can't just bail and abandon everybody and everything. You took on a responsibility, and it's on you to discharge it. Never mind what everyone else might think. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and like what you see. If you cut and run, you won't. I'd do two things. First, I'd think about what was bothering me, and I'd make a list of what I didn't like about what I was doing, and what I'd most like to be rid of. Then I'd have a heart to heart talk with my coworkers. I'd tell them I was unhappy, and what I was unhappy about, and I'd ask for help. I'd tell them I wanted time and space. That I wanted a few hours in the day when I wasn't buried under the affairs of the firm. That I needed people to step up and take on some of my responsibilities. I'm willing to bet you have people working with you that can take some of the load off your shoulders. I am willing to bet there are parts of your job you could carve out and hand to someone else. I am willing to bet that there are people working with you who would like to grow and take a bigger role in your enterprise. You are trying to do too much, and burning out in the process. Delegate. Think through just what your role currently is, and what you would like it to be. Think about what parts of what you do could be done by others, and who in your company could do them instead of you. Then sit down with your people and work out a plan to make that happen. It won't be easy. It's hard to give up control like that. It's hard to deal with the fact that someone else might not do what you did they way you did it. But what's important is that it gets done, and the way they do it may be better than the way you did it. You have to be able to give your people space to do things in their own way, and your only real concern is whether they do it effectively. As companies grow and add people, roles change. What people do and how they do it changes. As the founder of a startup, your early days are very hands on, and you probably do some of just about everything that needs to be done on a day to day basis. As the company grows, you can't do that. There aren't enough hours in a day. Other people must take on some of what you do, and you must step back and let them do it. Your challenge now is making that happen.
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Dennis |