<story><title>Your Job as a Founder Is to Create Believers</title><url>http://josephwalla.com/your-job-as-a-founder-is-to-create-believers</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>riebschlager</author><text>I worked for a stretch at a startup where I was asked to &amp;quot;believe&amp;quot;. The company&amp;#x27;s core values were made into wall artwork and recited aloud at staff meetings. It was all eerily similar to my Catholic upbringing. Including the guilt. &amp;quot;Oh, you want to leave work at 5? Yeah, that&amp;#x27;s fine. I just thought you &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; believed.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;You have to be a little insane to start a company, I totally get that. But you&amp;#x27;re truly doing yourself a disservice if you&amp;#x27;re attempting to amass a legion of followers.&lt;p&gt;A good developer might not give two shits about your carefully crafted mission statement, but she&amp;#x27;ll do some kick ass work. Isn&amp;#x27;t that good enough any more? Why is &amp;quot;startup culture&amp;quot; so obsessed with maintaining the appearance of success rather than focusing on creating something amazing?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>joncalhoun</author><text>A few potential downsides to an employee not believing:&lt;p&gt;1. If they are offered an identical position at a company they believe in, they will leave. You won&amp;#x27;t be able to do anything to keep them around, so you have less ability to retain valuable employees. Hiring and training new employees is expensive.&lt;p&gt;2. They won&amp;#x27;t push back when bad decisions are made. Would you waste your time arguing about a bad decision if you didn&amp;#x27;t give a shit about the company? You want people who will work for the best interest of the company. Granted there comes a time when you need people to accept a decision, but you want their to be a discussion around those decisions.&lt;p&gt;3. They will negotiate for more salary than equity&amp;#x2F;options, giving them less incentive to help make the company succeed.&lt;p&gt;4. They are less likely to convince their friends to join the company. Stripe built an incredibly talented engineering team through mostly referrals[1]. You lose that if you are hiring people who won&amp;#x27;t convince their friends to join.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure I am missing many others, and all startups may not need a team so dedicated that they would give up their salary, but having a team who believes in your company does have real benefits.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;firstround.com&amp;#x2F;review&amp;#x2F;How-Stripe-built-one-of-Silicon-Valleys-best-engineering-teams&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;firstround.com&amp;#x2F;review&amp;#x2F;How-Stripe-built-one-of-Silicon...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Your Job as a Founder Is to Create Believers</title><url>http://josephwalla.com/your-job-as-a-founder-is-to-create-believers</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>riebschlager</author><text>I worked for a stretch at a startup where I was asked to &amp;quot;believe&amp;quot;. The company&amp;#x27;s core values were made into wall artwork and recited aloud at staff meetings. It was all eerily similar to my Catholic upbringing. Including the guilt. &amp;quot;Oh, you want to leave work at 5? Yeah, that&amp;#x27;s fine. I just thought you &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; believed.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;You have to be a little insane to start a company, I totally get that. But you&amp;#x27;re truly doing yourself a disservice if you&amp;#x27;re attempting to amass a legion of followers.&lt;p&gt;A good developer might not give two shits about your carefully crafted mission statement, but she&amp;#x27;ll do some kick ass work. Isn&amp;#x27;t that good enough any more? Why is &amp;quot;startup culture&amp;quot; so obsessed with maintaining the appearance of success rather than focusing on creating something amazing?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>superuser2</author><text>Indeed. I work for a large tech company that values excitedness about the company over skill. We reject perfectly good engineers because they don&amp;#x27;t display sufficient excitement or (gasp!) want to be sold on the company in interviews, rather than grovel for an opportunity to get near us.&lt;p&gt;I identify as a mercenary more than a missionary, and believe in professionalism independent of passion, but you don&amp;#x27;t want to be caught saying that out loud here.</text></comment>