Essay · 5 min read

Keep Your Identity Small

Paul Graham · paulgraham.com Free Beginner

The cleanest argument for why you should not let "founder" (or the name of your company) become the thing you are. Graham's point is that the more labels you fold into your identity, the worse you think about them, because you start defending the label instead of reasoning. Applied to a founder: if "I am my startup" is load-bearing to your sense of self, every bad week feels like an attack on you personally. Keep the identity small and the company becomes a thing you are doing, not the whole of who you are.

  • The fewer things you pull into your identity, the more clearly you can think about them, so do not let "my startup" become the label you defend at all costs.
  • People reason worst about the topics tied to their identity; a founder fused to the company loses the ability to see it honestly.
  • Treat the startup as something you do, not something you are, so a setback stays a setback and does not read as a verdict on your worth.
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The question it answers

  1. How do I stop tying my entire self-worth to whether the startup succeeds?

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