What concerns me, and what triggered my follow-ups, is that JCal seems to confuse “passion” with “relentlessness”, “determination” with “disregard for humanity”. Yes, he focuses on that goal of the IPO, but at what cost? He’d say that’s the cost of going for the goal. I’d say that if that’s the case, and that all you get at the end of it is money and heart disease, then it’s not worth it.

I accept that he’s wired differently, and as he himself said in a comment somewhere, that’s the way he is. He’s compelled to it. Passion = compulsion, after all. But then serial killers and pedophiles say that too.

As I say, thank you for clearly describing the difference between the two attitudes.

Let’s start with Mr. Calacanis. Putting his farfetched pieces of advice aside (which sound like coming from a mad beancounter turned CEO, most of them) , it is obvious the man is passionate about his work, so much as to not mind working 14 hours a day and weekends to boot. The problem comes when he expects his employees to be as invested in their job as he is. They’re not, and they will never be. If you are not working for yourself, it is not a secret nor heresy that in order of priorities, it’s the payment check what comes in first and passion for your work second. And that there’s a big difference between working long hours because you *want* to and doing it because you *have* to.

Jason from 37s shows us the opposite side. You may think that by giving so many liberties to their staff they are playing with fire (like, leave a rotten apple to spoil the whole barrel), but truth is, besides being a small team, Jason has an iron-fisted control over who comes in and out of 37s so they already know the profile of their colleagues very, very well so they can try these things with confidence. Not to mention one of the main perks of being small (and successful!) is to be able to afford these kind of liberties with minimal risk.

@Bill Moore: Your first paragraph is a bit confusing, I can’t quite make out the “three groups” clearly. However in my case you’re wrong: I don’t lack knowledge of the “reality” of start-ups — been there, done that, have the medical bills — I just think that “reality” is very, very wrong.

“Dedication” is not the same as workaholism or exploitation, as 37signals’ DHH has explained.

As for not being happy with 15% of $100M, I’ve worked that into my follow-up piece.

@George Jilivik: A cheap shot.