I'll admit that sometimes as a guy trying to get a business off the ground, I feel like less of a man.  Running a startup will do that to you. When you fall back on your wife or significant other to be the main breadwinner, when you sacrifice stability and safety to chase a dream, you are often putting your loved ones in jeopardy.  It can make you feel like a loser, that somehow you're letting your family down. It's so tempting to tell yourself that if you could just suck it up like everyone else and hold down that 9 to 5 job and bring in a steady paycheck, your family would be so much better off.  How do we reconcile our traditional ideas of manliness; the notion of a man as the steady rock that looks after and provides for everyone, versus the startup ideal of a man who will put everything on the line to achieve his vision?