This is the "live laugh love" of the Bay Area.

> It’s helpful to remember that we’re collectively doing about 1% of what we theoretically could be accomplishing.

Is this supposed to mean anything at all?

my guess is that most, if not nearly all, successful founders were pulled into that position (i.e. self-directed) vs pushed out of desperation.

I'm not sure about that.

Starting a company is a risk vs reward calculation. If they were getting high salaries it wouldn't be unreasonable to want to minimize your risk by working on a project on the side while getting a bigger saving bank until a certain point. If you get fired the calculation is now whether you want to invest in job search or take the plunge and start the company

If you were that risk averse (that you didn’t act on your entrepreneurial instincts) when times were good, my money is that you’re more likely to double down in searching for safety.

I don’t know that there are any stats on this so in the end it is juts your and my opposing instincts :-)

A lot of entrepreneurs' personal stories start off with a setback like this last couple of weeks have imparted upon thousands of people

I'll bet a lot of those "low performers" just had a hard time jumping through hoops at the circus, but will do just fine out on the savannah