I rather be a loser

Founders in San Francisco all want to improve thousands of millions of people’s lives when they cannot even take care of the people around them.

When my friend said that, it hit hard. Tonight, I just received a message from my part-time boss after work. She twittered me that she needed this and that by Wednesday though I had already expressed that I didn’t want to overwork on what we had agreed on. I felt stressed and annoyed.

Those founders (aka my bosses) might look selfish, but I knew that they weren’t evil. In fact, they were mostly nice people. They were just too busy, too stressed, too caught out in their own world to worry about how people around them felt. They all thought their life and their company would be in danger if they didn’t rush today. They couldn’t take care of their own mental health, let alone think about how people around them felt.

Social media loved to say that Elon Musk and Steve Jobs can gain so much success because they treated their employees like shit. Regardless of this problematic causal inference, how much does social media notice that “those employees” are just people? People who have feelings. People who are sometimes angry, fearful, happy, and sad. People who are mother, father, daughter, son, friend, husband, and wife.

Today my friend called us that her entire bank got emptied because of a scam. She cried in front of the screen and I felt really sorry that I couldn’t be in the same city with her. Another classmate just got out of the ER. Meanwhile, the moment I walked into the startup incubator, everyone was already rushing. Rushing for what? For the AI trend? To be the next unicorn? To be smart and competent?

In my eyes, they all rush for no reason.

No one says not caring about people will bring you success. Most startups are doomed to fail anyway. Even if they become the next unicorn, what’s the point of success when you cannot be there when people you love are in pain? What’s the point of being worshipped like a God when you cannot even care a bit for the people sitting next to you every day?

To be honest, I would rather be someone who can take care of my friends when they cry than be the next Elon Musk. If that’s how people become successful, I rather be a loser.