What no one talks about when running and selling a business
I&#x27;m not sure I love the article, but I agree with the author&#x27;s sentiment.  I&#x27;m 4 years in to a successful bootstrapped startup, and I&#x27;ve lost many close acquaintances.  I simply don&#x27;t have time to keep the social connections alive and I have not prioritized them.  I&#x27;m somewhat introverted by nature so this is not really a major concern of mine at this time, but I suspect it may be a regret later.<p>What is challenging for me is the fact that most people cannot relate to my life.  They can&#x27;t understand why you&#x27;d work 60+ hours a week on a fledgling business.  They can&#x27;t understand the obsession and inability to &quot;turn it off.&quot;  They don&#x27;t understand what it takes to get a customer to actually pay you, let alone build something people enjoy using and solves problems.  I do find that many folks assume you just &quot;lucked&quot; your way in to success.<p>And I think bootstrapped business owners have it the worst of all.  It&#x27;s comparably easy to spend VC cash once you get funding, rather than money from &quot;your own pocket.&quot;  It&#x27;s not hard to justify hiring 5 people when the VCs explicitly tell you that&#x27;s what the money is for.  Bootstrapping a successful business is indeed a rare feat, and only the people who&#x27;ve been there can understand exactly how all consuming and difficult it is.  (At least, that&#x27;s been my experience so far)