Not fair to the wife?

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

John Washam seems like a good person and I wish him every happiness in the world. Certainly we can all hope that he has an excellent career at a job he enjoys, while also enjoying the love of those who are most dear to him. All the same, I read his blog and I am a bit amazed at the things he writes. We are of a similar age, and we’ve had similar careers, and he seems of a similar entrepreneurial bent. So what should I make of this:

“Working at Amazon is a dream come true and I’ll be working on the Amazon Web Services Config team.”

Working at Amazon is a dream come true? This seems impossible to believe. Who dreams of that? It has a reputation as a sweat shop for developers. And this from a man who has spent years extolling the virtues of startups? One has to assume he is politically motivated, especially since he also writes:

“I won’t be starting anything new. That wouldn’t be fair to my awesome wife, Amazon, or myself.”

Not fair to the wife? Of course, everyone must find their own path when it comes to love. And again, I wish him every happiness. But there is a shock in seeing a man similar to me in so many ways, yet making a decision so foreign to me. I would never allow a relationship to get in the way of my career.

(If you are so inclined, you can, of course, queue up all the conventional cliches about how I will die cold and alone and bitter whereas he will die surrounded by those who love him, and no doubt the world is better off for it.)

Post external references

  1. 1
    https://startupnextdoor.com/ive-been-acquired-by-amazon/
  2. 2
    https://startupnextdoor.com/my-startup-days-are-over/
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