I disagree. Morale is huge deal within a startup. Startups are emotional rollercoasters, and if your environment is always negatively affecting your morale, the lows will eventually drag down your productivity. That doesn't mean you aren't fit for entrepreneurship - if so, why are the majority of successful web startups clustered in the Bay Area?
Respect has to be earned. If one's morale is buttressed by toadies and 'respecting' yes-men who gush about how awesome you are just because of your job title, things are more likely to go off the rails when the sun stops shining.
By all means mix with like-minded people, but your morale and motivation shouldn't depend upon whether or not your neighbour thinks you're 'cool'.
This doesn't really have to do with yes-men. We're not talking about people who feel negatively about your company, but rather the fact that you run one at all. The kind of scorn the article author talks about is not "oh man, there's no future in (field)", but rather "why in the world would you risk running your own company?!". The latter certainly still calls for a thick skin, but it would help if your closest friends and family were supportive about the concept.
In theory, yes it's true that scorn may even help one's entrepreneurial flame. The difference is that starting a company is like starting a fire. Little gusts of wind can buttress and make the fire spread, but it can also knock it out.
Having the support of the community within the bay area is just one less headache to deal with in conjunction with the many headaches of doing a startup.
If you compare one place to another, and clearly one of those locations has an environment more supportive for success in your field, wouldn't that be preferred? Perhaps you are just looking for a challenge, but if you're like the rest of us who are looking to succeed, maximizing the success factors tends to be a good idea.
An abbreviation of 'toadeater'. Originally, a charlatan's helper who ate (or pretended to eat) poisonous toads so that his employer could display his prowess in expelling the poison.
