13 years ago, I created a website. Today I realize I really don't have the time to take care of it and I must think of selling it. Strange thing, as I was preparing the figures needed to sell it, I realized I have this feeling I am abandoning a baby... After all, this site was my project, my idea, and accompanied me for so many years... Is that common? Have you had the same feeling when you separated from a site before?
It is a very well-known phenomenon in the business world and began long before the Internet. Entrepreneurs have been loathe to give up their "babies" since the beginning of time. And, in my experience, many of these companies never fully recover from the loss of their founder, anyway, so it is usually best for the founder to stay as long as willing and able. Beyond this, I also have witnessed "seller's remorse" on the part of the founder when the new owners/managers rode the once vibrant company into the ground. One fellow bought it back at fire sale prices and then grew it back to where it had been previously. Not sure what his exit strategy is this time.
thank you jrbiz. I am not sure this is the full big image. In my opinion, Microsoft delivered much better products after Gates's departure. You have the right to disagree, but I am a big fan of windows 7, 8 and the 10 preview!
The other day I logged into one of my web hosting providers and realized that over the past 10 years I went through... 30+ websites. Some of them I had for 2-3 years. I really do not have that issue. Granted 2-3 years is not 13 years, but abandoning stuff shouldn't be all that hard. It's just stuff. And the fact you've brought this up tells me it's probably for the better if your "baby" goes...
You are right qwikad. But you know, sometimes "stuff" mean a bit more to us.... Human beings are complicated and our feelings are most unexplored land. You are right, what I said, probably means it is really time to let that site go ...
I did not mean to imply that all businesses fail when the founder leaves (or is kicked out by VC's, etc.) In fact, many thrive with new leadership. I was merely pointing out that I knew a couple of entrepreneurs that were basically devastated when their "baby" suffered after their departure which is a possible result that makes "giving up the baby" even more difficult for some. That said, you and I will have to agree to disagree on the value of Win8. It reminds me of the failures of WinVista.
Indeed jrbiz it is an issue. You spend 25% of your life building something and then you have no guarantees the guy taking over won't ruin it !! I believe we will disagree on windows 8 which I really like... Check also Win 10 tech preview! It is lovely.