Stopped sharing my projects with my wife after years of failed ideas

· noise r/entrepreneur · ↑ 775 · 💬 417 · 2025-09-18 · kw: hours every day · open on reddit ↗

Tool

none

Issue

Entrepreneur with 5 years, 10+ failed projects, 12+ daily hours invested, spouse refuses to engage with ideas anymore due to repeated failures, causing isolation and relationship strain.

Cost

unstated

Recommendation

none

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

I’ve been working 12+ hours a day for the past 5 years, trying more than 10 different ideas. None of them became “successful” yet, but I keep pushing because I really believe one day something will click. Until recently, I used to share every project idea with my wife and ask for her thoughts. But her reaction lately has been: “Let us breathe with your projects. We know none of them work.” It honestly hurt, and I’ve stopped telling her what I’m working on. I still love her and I know she’s just tired of seeing me struggle, but I feel pretty lonely in this journey now. Has anyone else been through this? How do you deal with a partner who’s lost faith in your projects

Top comments (7)

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[score=1309] ironwrk

This is the way of the world. You have sold her a false dream too many times. She is not going to participate in your fantasy any more. She is going to stick with reality, which is only rational. You need to make your fantasy into reality for her to join in.

[score=177] Beginning-Comedian-2

Are you bringing in income from a job?

[score=386] Embarrassed_Key_4539

12+ hours per day for 5 years on 10 ideas, none of which worked. Guy, I’m with your wife on this. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. Maybe you are the next Ray Kroc, or maybe you should work for someone else. But I understand her fatigue and although it hurts, it’s the truth.

[score=42] [deleted]

My friend, your wife feels certainly lonely too. Take care of her before losing her. We understand the value of what we have once it's gone.

[score=60] TopicOk4285

I agree with all the other people’s comments about managing time with your wife and ensuring you’re learning from past mistakes etc. something I want to add is this concept with going to the gym. If you tell people you’ve started going to the gym, working out etc they will tell you good job and you’ll get a sense of satisfaction. The issue is that your brain takes that satisfaction, says I did a good job, and then it demotivates you to actually keep going to the gym. I’ve found this concept affects my entrepreneur projects as well. If I tell a bunch of people about it I can lose interest or maybe don’t do the due diligence I should to make sure it’s actually a sound idea. It’s sometimes good to develop something in silence first before sharing with others.

[score=151] darthnilus

Do you really think that this is all about you? You're married and as much as you expect her to support your dreams; what about her dreams? Perhaps this isn't what she signed up for? Do you ever consider that perhaps she wants some stability? Perhaps she is tired of being the stability of the couple? Seriously, what if she is sick of your 'journey' IT sounds like an exercise in futility if you have tried 10 things in 5 years; no shit she is sick of your shit. I am sick of listening to it and it is only a paragraph. Who literally gives a shit that you are working 12 hr days, perhaps you aren't spending your time on the right stuff.