While dreaming and disrupting has unfettered me in many ways, ithas shackled me in others. One of the most unexpected was losing apart of my identity. Once the rush of leaving a name-brandcorporation wore off, it began to seep in that I could no longercall someone and say “Whitney Johnson, Merrill Lynch.” It was justWhitney Johnson. I also became reacquainted with the immediateconcern of putting food on the table whilst on an entrepreneurialthrill ride to zero cash flow.

There's a good dose of cosmic payback in all this. For years Ipontificated about the importance of bootstrapping a businesswithout having any firsthand notion of belt-tightening. Nearly adecade later, I find myself almost a fan of constraints. If you,like me, are a foot-dragging devotee, consider the following:

Fewer resources produce proximity; proximity drivesinnovation. When I worked for a bulge bracket WallStreet firm, our family lived in a very large home; had we chosento, we could literally have lived separate lives and rarelyinteracted. When I quit my job to become an entrepreneur, wedownsized, moving into a home with ¼ of our formerliving space. No longer having a beautiful space to entertainsometimes makes me wistful. But most days I love our closerquarters. We bump up against one another, negotiate who sits where,who washes the dishes when and who watches what. Proximity can leadto friction, and friction can rub people raw. But itcan also light a fire, one that warms and binds us into afamily. Read complete Harvard Business Review blogpost.