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This venture is, by one count, my eighth startup and, as I’m not rich yet, one might wonder why I’m still banging my head against this particular sharp object. My wife doesn’t - she knew what I was like when she married me. (Not that she’s stopped trying to, er, improve some of my habits!)

I used to play golf once or twice a week before I got married, had kids, and bought a house with a big yard. And then my wife got a good job, and my parents got older. And then her parents got older and moved back to the area. And my kids got involved in sports and scouts and performances.

So golf went out the window - haven’t played seriously in five years, haven’t even hit a ball in two years. But I am doing another startup. Hmmm.

Why did I stick with golf, having almost no natural ability? Well, every 18 you hit one sweet drive, it speeds through the air, fading right where you wanted it. And it wasn’t a mistake because you *meant* to do that, you practiced it, you concentrated, and you executed. Wow, what a feeling.

The more I played the more of those moments I got - addictive moments.

Even better, when you really shank a ball, you know it as soon as you hit it. If you pay close attention you often know why you did it as well. As a someone who believes in constant improvement, that is pretty cool too.

Best of all: you learn to recognize the situation before you hit the ball into the innocent foursome standing at the next teebox. Which means you can back off and reapply your focus before failure. It’s the last step before not really making many mistakes at all.

Startups are the same thing.

When you are a small company you get to own the hit - the marketing direction, the design, the work product. And when it’s a sweet hit, it’s because of you, not a large team with overhead. And the mistakes are yours too. And you can stop before you make the mistakes and replan for success. And you can insert your own planning method and not use one from corporate.

It’s not to say that startups aren’t a team effort - they necessarily are - but you can choose your team. Either by hiring A players or only joining a startup full of top talent.

I hope you don’t think that is a strained analogy, but it works in my head.

I want to say one other thing about how I learned from Golf about how to do startups better: making time for my family. When I gradually dropped golf, I was pretty relaxed about it - my wife, children, and home were just more important than the game and the satisfaction I got from it was sterile compared to having a kid with a skinned knee comforted by his daddy. And as I became a better husband/father I brought new skills into the workplace.

So why did I leave Mega Corp to do a startup if home and family are the most important things in my life? Because startups, really, are worse than golf in terms of the addiction/frustration/satisfaction cycle. I’d been wanting to do something cool and exciting and fulfilling for 5 years. So I spent a year looking around and made this current situation happen.

And I think I’m a better dad/husband because of it, even if I’m working more hours - albiet a lot of them after everyone else is asleep. I am more engaged in work with less anxiety and frustration - which means I’m more relaxed when my oldest leaves the hammers and saws in the tree fort duing a week of rain. (Not completely relaxed, but not explosive, anyway.) Which means I am learning more husband/father skills - all of which I can use at work. And because I’m happier at work I am smarter there - and I bring some of that home too.

I was able to give up golf easily, but spent 5 years missing startups and a year making it happen on my terms. No doubt at all: startups are more addicting than golf.