My portfolio founder was terrified of firing someone - then I heard about an axe to the head

At the start of COVID, my partner (an attorney at law) and I were in the middle of our house's renovation. Temporarily, we had only one partly-completed room to stay in, so when the remote work started, we found ourselves sharing the same workspace day in and day out for a few weeks.

We each had our calls, which meant we got a front-row seat to each other’s worlds. My calls were usually with early-stage founders facing challenges like having to lay someone off for the very first time or dealing with the stress of a dwindling bank account.

Meanwhile, my partner was listening to a client explain how he had attacked someone with an axe. You could almost feel reality shift as we hopped between “I’m scared to check my account balance” and “I just took a swing at my partner’s head.”

That experience was a good reminder that what feels monumental in the startup sphere can pale in comparison to the kinds of problems other people face - like the very real possibility of prison time or legal battles.

It’s not that founders’ challenges aren’t valid. Running out of funds, dealing with messy team breakups, and pivoting under pressure are real stressors. But hearing about someone facing legal consequences for violence? That puts things into sharper focus.

When problems feel bigger than they are

Early in my own founder journey, every problem felt like a potential company-killer. An upset customer, a delayed product release, or a tough personnel decision could set my heart racing. There’s always something on the line - your reputation, your relationships, your bank balance. Yet it’s easy to lose perspective and let these challenges balloon into existential nightmares.

From a broader vantage point, the typical founder worries - while stressful - aren’t life or death. As a founder, that perspective might help you cope: sometimes, the best thing you can do is step back and realize the world won’t end if you fail. It might be painful to wrap up a company you’ve poured your passion into, but it’s rarely catastrophic.

That same viewpoint is common in venture capital. VCs know the startup game well. They’re funding multiple businesses, so some will inevitably run out of money, stall out, or pivot into oblivion. When founders throw everything they have into an idea, it’s easy to forget that investors understand that risk from the beginning. A quick closure is often viewed as preferable to a slow bleed.

Why? Because once you’ve been through a shutdown, you carry those lessons into your next venture. You develop a sense of resilience that can’t be taught in a classroom or gleaned from a case study. And for VCs, that makes you a more experienced founder the next time around.

Embrace the bigger picture

The next time you’re on a call, stressed about finding the right person to hire - or, worse, having to let someone go - remember that your startup worries might not be the direct concerns in the grand scheme.

That’s not to dismiss your stress but to remind you that perspective keeps you grounded. If a venture fails, it’s not an irreversible disaster. You can bounce back, having learned what went wrong. And investors? They typically respect founders who’ve gone through the fire and come out determined to try again.

No matter how overwhelming the entrepreneurial grind can feel, hearing about someone literally wielding an axe against another person’s head is a reminder that some problems are far more severe. It’s not exactly comforting that such extremes exist, but it does put your day-to-day startup stress in perspective.

After all, losing a key employee or running out of runway isn’t nearly as life-altering as facing a criminal charge. Keeping that bigger picture in mind can help you focus on practical solutions rather than letting fear consume you.