Comments on: Founders and dysfunctional families

By: Quora

Quora — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 04:21:59 +0000

Why are so many people in Silicon Valley passive-aggressive?…

As a bay area native, I’ll offer that many folks around here not very direct and are uncomfortable with interpersonal tension. Especially compared with NY. (although I would love to see an actual study here) As far as valley types – native or imported…

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:28:18 +0000

There’s nothing like a sparring contest in a hostile divorce, where one party does everything possible to squeeze the happiness of the other by leveraging the children’s emotions, stability and charisma. Of which the other party replies: Good to see you, and hope you are doing well (but secretly, this party is a pack mule who does not stop doing everything they can to what’s best for the family).

By: Mark Szlazak

Mark Szlazak — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:49:25 +0000

Steve, you do point out a possible problem with sampling.

I don’t know what number of entrepreneurs in SV are from China or from Chinese parents and likewise for Indians.

Also, the sample size isn’t up to standard either and I would be more comfortable with numbers over a thousand.

However, they do correspond to responses I’ve heard around SV. Not all seek VC funding so maybe there is difference between those that do and those that don’t.

Looks like more research is needed to get a better picture.

By: Michael F. Martin

Michael F. Martin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:37:13 +0000

As somebody else pointed out to me recently, the empirical study of the identity of entrepreneurs has a long and dubious history:

In 1988, William Gartner writes:

“the attempt to answer the question who is an entrepreneur, which focuses on the traits and personality characteristics of entrepreneurs, will neither lead us to a definition of the entrepreneur nor help us to understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurship”

http://business2.fiu.edu/1660397/www/Session%202%20Readings/Gartner_1988_All.pdf

But the explanation for Steve’s observed discrepancy is that the Kauffman study was looking at both Silicon Valley startups and new small businesses around the country. Apples and oranges in many regards.

By: steveblank

steveblank — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:29:42 +0000

Mark,
The Kauffman Foundation does excellent work.

However it’s worth looking at page 8 of the study. In the country of birth it says 0.6% of the founders surveyed were born in China, 3.8% were born in India. That may be the case for the 549 founders they interviewed, but only 4.5% of total entrepreneurs born in China and India is not even close to what entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley looks like.
Therefore I’m not sure what to make of the rest of their conclusions.

steve

By: Mark Szlazak

Mark Szlazak — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:19:29 +0000

“Typical Company Founders Are Married with Children and Well-Educated; Strive to Rise Above their Lower-, Middle-Class Heritage” is what the study “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur” by the Kauffman Foundation has concluded.
Here is the url:

http://www.kauffman.org/typical-company-founders-are-married-with-children-and-well-educated-strive-to-rise-above-their-lower-middle-class-heritage.aspx

By: Richard Freytag

Richard Freytag — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:23:22 +0000

Steve sees the dysfunctional family as a classroom of sorts. You see it as a filter. There is not enough data here to arrive at a conclusion and both are compelling views.

By: steveblank

steveblank — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:24:15 +0000

Correct. I wasn’t trying to make the case that allentrepreneurs come from dysfunctional families, just a larger percentage than the population as a whole.

steve

By: A. Heifets

A. Heifets — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:39:16 +0000

“… between a quarter and half of the students I consider ‘hard-core’ entrepreneurs/founders (working passionately to found a company,) self-identified as coming from a less than benign upbringing.”

Perhaps I’ve misunderstood this sentence, but your numbers actually show that a minority of founders come from dysfunctional families. Inverting your measure, we see that 75-50% of ‘hard-core’ entrepreneurs/founders come from a benign or better upbringing, no?

By: bob dorf

bob dorf — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:46:45 +0000

I think “survivorship” is more the entrepreneurial driver than dysfunctional upbringing, although the latter often begets the former. the great ceo’s i’ve seen just don’t give up. i’ve best heard it described as “fire in the belly” just like the one in the steel mill you describe. adversity is just an issue to confront, overcome…

i lost my infant son four months into startup #4. the only thing that kept me barely sane was immersing myself in the startup, heads-down, drivign business through the pain the way a marathoner confronts a hill with cramps at, say, mile 23. The successful entrepreneur’s mantra might well be “what doesn’t killya makes ya stronger.”

By: Michael F. Martin

Michael F. Martin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:17:12 +0000

I agree with Maurice Karnaugh. I think that VC was taking advantage of the information revealed about the survivors from the fact of survival. There are other ways to cultivate the ability to deal with stress and uncertainty in life. The military, for example, is pretty good at training people that way — an example that complicates even Mr. Blanks’s case.

By: Maurice Karnaugh

Maurice Karnaugh — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:42:47 +0000

I am not sure that dysfunctional families are intrinsically good. It seems to me that what you are getting are the survivors, who have the special qualities needed to face serious challenges.

However, it is quite possible that the accumulation of hard knocks, whether from the family or other sources, can do a lot to sharpen perceptions and judgment. It is not my view that a carefully structured and maximally sheltered upbringing is a good idea.

Ideally, nurture and education ought to be able to fulfill this function while doing less emotional damage.

Sadly, we have not yet learned how.

By: What Makes a Good CEO? You May Be Surprised. « Change Agent

What Makes a Good CEO? You May Be Surprised. « Change Agent — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:11:00 +0000

[...] a start up or a turn around requires additional traits mentioned in Steve Blank’s post titled “Founders and Dysfunctional Families.” Black mentions: tenacity (in the face of skepticism from investors, customers and friends); an [...]

By: ericnakagawa

ericnakagawa — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:03:06 +0000

I was raised in a pretty rough neighborhood (Halawa Housing, in Hawaii). My mother was a single parent on welfare and raised 8 kids. I picked up street smarts out of necessity — learning how to navigate the buildings, gangs, social groups, defending myself, making alliances with the bullies/leaders, how to dissolve conflict, and most of all learning to observe people.

The ends never met, money was always tight. The housing project was full of drug users and people exploiting the welfare system. Throughout all this my mother still instilled in an implied concept of using my skills, brains, or hands to earn money to “get out” of the ghetto.

I think the irony of my motivation and obsession with startups is the desire to keep in touch with chaos and risk I lived through while maintaining at least some a small level of control. Do I think I owe my successes to these experiences? Sure, but I would never wish the same experience upon my children.

The fear of ghosts of our pasts and the fear of a marginal future continues to motivate me to never give up and wake each day to keep moving forward.

“It ain’t where you from, it’s where you at” — Mos Def “Habitat”

By: Kamal Ravikant

Kamal Ravikant — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:07:39 +0000

Interestingly, this is exactly what Hemingway said when asked for the one trait a great writer needed.

By: DM

DM — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:41:28 +0000

I agree with this theory 100% from my own experiences founding startups and coming from a (borderline) dysfunctional family. I have seen other friends come from very stable environments who fall apart in chaos and feed off of security.

By: Nancy Raulston

Nancy Raulston — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:54:12 +0000

I was doing research for a dissertation (that never got finished) interviewing serial entrepreneurs to answer the question “are entrepreneurs born or can they be made?” As both a VC and now as an OD consultant specializing in start ups, I see that many of the traits that might be considered “unhealthy” from a purely psychological point of view are actually adaptive for a start up entrepreneur (such as the ability to suspend reality testing and keep going after a dream in the face of lots of discouragement!) Anyway, one of the CEO’s I interviewed said she thought entrepreneurs had been people who at some point in their lives had realized that none of the rules they had been taught really worked, that they were going to have to create their own. That enabled them to be comfortable in ambiguity and in the situation where they had to create something from nothing. And, of course, that probably makes them the first folks to question or discard the rules — which can cause chaos when the company gets big enough that rules and processes and systems are necessary

By: Naveen JP

Naveen JP — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:52:01 +0000

The fine line might be that those who `survive’ a dysfunctional family have a better chance. I think `survival skills = nature’ and `dysfunctional family = nurture’, where nature plays a bigger role. I have read that about 50% of behavioral traits are heritable, 0-10% of behavioral traits are acquired from family and the remaining is mostly acquired from peers (http://www.psybertron.org/slatereview.html).

By: Jeff Widman

Jeff Widman — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:16:15 +0000

I grew up homeschooled–and played sports in the public school. Great parents, who loved me dearly.

but every day at practice, i was reminded that i was different–playing sports in a world where no one understood my education.

gave me the best set of guts i think i could have had, because i saw that my education, in both the acadamic arena and in general social skills, taught me better than 95% of the people i run into… when your parents take a risk on you, and it pays off, it emboldens you to take a risk on yourself–even when no one knows what the heck you’re doing…

By: Jonathan Payne

Jonathan Payne — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:43:48 +0000

fascinating. i’ve theorized about this myself. many of the most successful people i know have some tragic life stories that have driven them to do great things. to tragedy, though, i would add dissatisfaction. or perhaps, discontent. stated positively, this would often be viewed as progressive perfectionism. endless discontent, while not the happiest way to live, drives progress and innovation. pair that with the strength that comes from overcoming tragedy, and you have yourself an entrepreneur!

William, I like your point about being “too comfortable” or even “partial” to chaos. i often find myself bored, i think, because of this. reminds me of a line in ray lamontagne’s song, Empty: “I’ve been to hell and back so many times, I must admit you kind of bore me.” sometimes those with battle wounds just keep on going into battle because they’re addicted to it…