Common Symptoms
- An unwavering long-term commitment to strategic hypotheses that are not working, and have never worked
- An insistence on upholding irrational assertions about key business variables, counter to readily available evidence
- A tendency to blame a lack of revenue on one’s prospective customers
- A tendency to blame a lack of capital on one’s prospective investors
- A tendency to blame critical feedback on the subject-matter expert providing it, followed by cursory rejection of such feedback and prompt termination of the discussion
- High levels of confidence combined with low levels of competence; particularly as manifested in confusion regarding one’s area(s) of functional expertise
- Lack of understanding regarding the nature and benefits of delegation
- Squirrel!!!
- A strong belief that pre-money valuations are best calculated based on the founder’s past effort and personal enthusiasm
- An inherent preference for controlling all of nothing, versus owning some portion of something valuable
- Any delusional consideration of an exit strategy that involves Facebook or the word “billion”
- A recurrently empty bank account
- Eagerness to cite the mere absence of abject failure, to date, as irrefutable proof of imminent success on a global scale
- Hostile denial, despite one’s documented status as the poster child for Entrepreneur’s Disease
Known Treatments
- Introspective acceptance and meaningful corrective action, but only where initiated by the recovering founder
- Invasive removal of the infected founder by other stakeholders (who inevitably grow impatient with unrelenting displays of asshattery)
- Self-destruction of the host business – because that pretty much cures it, too…