Stay Ups, Not Startups

Jason Fried is tired of startup culture: 'Literally tomorrow, I can start a new business. But are you going to be there in two years? Staying is harder than starting. So I'm here to celebrate stay ups.'

Every January, parents start new systems. The chore chart. The screen time rules. The morning routine. Fresh resolve, laminated posters, maybe even a family meeting.

By February, the chart is buried under permission slips and the resolve has quietly died.

Starting takes inspiration. Staying takes something harder - the willingness to keep going when it's boring, when nobody notices, when the fifth exception has eroded the rule into a polite suggestion.

The parenting wins that matter aren't the new initiatives. They're the stay ups: three years of consistent bedtime, even when you didn't feel like it. Two years of family dinners, even when schedules fought you.

Staying is where change actually happens. And it doesn't come with a launch party.