Ask HN: Startup people are narcissists?

In my opinion, you have to be narcissistic to want to start a business. It takes more than just having confidence and believing in yourself - you have to have the attitude that you will succeed for XYZ reasons, and you have to execute on them with the same attitude.

Narcissistic? Maybe some are. Maybe even many are. I don't have data to say one way or the other, but even if we assume that most entrepreneurs are narcissistic, I highly doubt it's a requirement.

My own view on business is that the fundamental point is to provide something of value to other people. The focus is not on me, but on them... what can I do to improve their life? What service or product can I provide that will help someone else?

To break out of the standard pattern of getting a job and working anonymously in an office would certainly require confidence in yourself, that you have something you can provide to others yourself, not just as an employee of another company. Perhaps narcissistic people tend to find it easier to break out of that pattern and into their own business, but if obsession with oneself ever does lead to successful business, I suspect it's a correlation at best, not a causation.

I don't think that most of the successful startup founders I know are narcissists. They can turn on the confidence when necessary (eg. to close a negotiation), but for the most part they're quite humble.

I think that startup founders you hear about often are narcissists. Founding a company isn't really a narcissistic thing to do, but seeking press (particularly for yourself instead of your company) is. Thought experiment: how many times do you see Dropbox in the press as a product, vs. how many times do you see Drew Houston as a founder? And compare that to how often you see Mahalo as a company vs. Jason Calacanis as a founder.

However, are the successful ones narcissistic or just confident?

Narcissism is a flaw of overvaluing yourself to the point where it negatively impacts relationships and performance. I can't see many successful entrepreneurs getting through as narcissists. However, I also think that many confident people are mislabeled by those who lack confidence in themselves and insult those with it.

I forget who said it, but "It isn't arrogance when you back it up but it doesn't mean you can't be a jackass about it."

Narcissus died admiring his reflection. He just sat there until he croaked.

That sounds very different from what an entrepreneur does, regardless of how arrogant he/she may be.