Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Entrepreneurship is hard and I know it from experience, but have you ever taken care of someone 24 hours a day? An alzheimers patient or a developmentally disabled child?

My dad has AD and I'm his primary caregiver and compared to caregiving, entrepreneurship with all its pain is literally a fucking joy. Happiest part of my day even when making $0. I've failed at entprenreurship badly for a 2+ years but psychologically I have none of the pain associated with it because I know how much harder life can be.

Don't get me wrong, if I had the chance I would walk away from both but once you've experienced the toll of careigvng, you quit complaining about how hard entrepreneurship is.

I sometimes think that all wannabe entrepreneurs should work as a fulltime caregiver at an old age home or childrens ward at a hospital for 2 weeks. It would lessen the "pain" of entrepreneurship 10 fold.

That would reframe a lot of the pain away and help you focus on what needs to be done to market/sell a product and build it.

The truth is that the "pain" is 100% psychological and most children bought up in middle class and above families have never experienced what it means to have nothing.

Entrepreneurs who have grown up poor don't even understand what I'm talking about when I try to explain this concept.

So volunteer in the peace corps and it'll take away 100% of the pain of entrepreneurship and help you focus on executing.



I used to work as a care assistant. I basically agree with the parent but while reading about massive psychological toll of being rejected I could not help but think "try to observe a half-conscious guy in terminal stadium of cancer moan and scream from pain for hours before he finally dies" - I was working night shifts and after THAT I could not believe that sun was still rising.

And working as a minimum wage 'robo-slave' in a pen factory for one week when I was at high school made me realize that this kind of work is no cake either.

Entrepreneurship, however hard, is still one of the easiest methods how to make a living.


Frankly, your post sounds like a piece of dialog from the Four Yorkshiremen sketch.

The point, from my interpretation, is not that entrepreneurship is mind-numbingly painful but that it is deceitfully painful, while care-giving for an Alzheimer's patient is expected to be painful.


Did you really mean to write a comment that implies that entrepreneurship might be harder than caring for someone dying of Alzheimers?


Sorry, you'll have to point it out to me. Sometimes my grasp of English isn't good enough, I'm afraid.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: