Life of an entrepreneur

December 9 was just another day. I actually scheduled a meeting in Manhattan not realizing today was my 37th birthday. And it was not just another day. I've received many birthday messages on LinkedIn. I'm overwhelmed by and grateful to my contacts most of whom I never have a chance to meet in person. Feeling lucky? Absolutely. But I have about 7,000 LinkedIn contacts. I don't think I received this many birthday messages in my life so I feel damn lucky for sure.

So on my birthday, I decided to pay my tribute to Tony Hsieh. I never knew him personally. He was the CEO of Zappos. Tony was a super-smart Harvard grad and also a super successful Asian entrepreneur. His passing was shocking at first when the news was out. Since the dead men don't talk, now I read all sorts of weird stories about his other side. Tony, who wrote an NYT bestseller book called "Delivering Happiness" once was a revolutionary and selfless man, is now a sad mad man with dark secrets. He was played by the fire.

This is a very unfortunate and paradoxical path for fellow entrepreneurs regardless of their net worth and the scalability of the business. Not because we share the role as entrepreneurs (also leaders, business owners, CEOs, and founders), this position unveils some very dark nature of human beings.

A start-up path appears to be extremely fascinating, empowering, and very attractive to many including me. But no gain, no pain. Notice that I used the phrase backward. It's already painful to gain something. It's even more painful to pay the unlimited price for your gain. And you get what you pay for does not seem to work for entrepreneurs.

I do not know the answer. I may never have the answer to this. Today was my birthday, a day to be celebrated for one's birth. But every birth shares death one day.

To all struggling entrepreneurs out there, let's stay healthy.

Holly