"The first time I had sex I was seventeen" is not the way you'd expect a blog post titled "Growing Up As a Startup Founder" to begin, and yet, here we are. Let this analogy flow over you like a large, warm wave.

Here is a portion of startup founder Michael Sacca's childhood, as published on Medium:

There was the usual squirming foreplay but this time we both knew where it was headed.

“Am I doing this right?”
“Is this all it is?”
“This IS all it is!”
“I’m Doing Sex!”

The first thing I recall out of her mouth was “maybe next time we can do it a little longer,” followed by “you are number fourteen you know.”

Fourteen! Who were these other thirteen guys? They probably all had apartments. I couldn’t compete. I had no idea what I was even doing. I had to break up with her immediately.

Jeez. Fast forward to software, and here we are again, sort of:

I was right back there - squirming around. Looking for affirmation that my decisions were suitable. That I really could lead someone who was more talented than myself.

We tried to do everything right. Free Lunches. Expensive dinners. All expenses paid trips to tech conferences. We had paid gym memberships. We had weekly Yoga. We treated our neighbors Foosball table as our own. We even gave large year end bonuses.

But in the end, I was a terrible leader. The signs were all around me. He was visibly miserable coming into the office.

I can't really follow the train of thought here, but maybe you can: give it a shot.