I had written about how America’s success might be because America’s entrepreneurs are hypomanics (Hypomanics to the rescue 🙂).

The New York Times just wrote a great article on hypomanic entrepreneurs and the difference between “the loonies from the slightly manic”. Their description of Seth Priebatsch completely reminds me of me when I created Aucland when I was 23:

“Elevated” hardly describes this guy. To keep the pace of his thoughts and conversation at manageable levels, he runs on a track every morning until he literally collapses. He can work 96 hours in a row. He plans to live in his office, crashing in a sleeping bag. He describes anything that distracts him and his future colleagues, even for minutes, as “evil.”

He is 21 years old.

I worked an insane amount of hours at the time, took no vacations, had no friends and was soul and body dedicated to the cause. I had so many ideas and so much energy, it was unbelievable. With hindsight, I made tons of mistakes and definitely reached the point of negative marginal returns on hours worked, but the experience was amazing and the article rekindled fond memories.

The article is definitely worth a read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19entre.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=entrepreneur&st=cse&scp=3