The choice to join a startup can have a massive impact on a person’s loved ones — and some people handle the news better than others. At Quibb, the social network for professional content, we’ve collected stories from five Quibb members about how they described their startup transition to friends and family.

As a life choice, startups seem totally obvious to some people and completely insane to others. This means that people who work at startups often have trouble explaining themselves to friends, family, and people on the street.

Sometimes It’s Really Easy To Explain Why You Joined A Startup …

Some cultures are very familiar with startups, and are more open-minded about them. Gilad Bonjack is from Israel, and that’s why he didn’t shock anyone in his life by switching from a 3,500-person company to the messaging startup Voxer. “Israel has the highest number of startups per capita in the world, so the culture is friendly to startups,” he says. “No one is surprised if you join or start one.”

Bonjack pointed us to a piece in The Economist that lists the world’s startup hubs, and states that “Israel is now the most likely place for people to start a tech firm: the country has an estimated 375 startups per million inhabitants versus nearly 190 in America.”

Walter Chen, founder of iDoneThis, says that “Among my friends, starting a company is normal. No one was shocked.” He started his company in Brooklyn.

… And Sometimes It’s Harder To Explain

Although starting a company was normal among Walter Chen’s friends, it was a surprising choice to his parents. They had already been surprised when he chose to become a lawyer in college; then they were surprised again when Chen transitioned to startups.

“My dad is a math professor,” Chen explains. “Both my parents are immigrants. I did math and science growing up, but in college, I decided to go to law school. When I told my dad, he was surprised and he said, ‘Lawyers are scum.’ But since lawyers make good money, he pretty quickly got into it because I was making more money than he was.

“The thing is,” Chen goes on, “Asian-American parents are often conservative and status-conscious, but at the same time, they’re immigrants and entrepreneurs themselves. They came to the US for opportunity and to make a better life. So although my parents weren’t happy that I was giving up financial success by leaving the law, they also respected that entrepreneurial spirit. They got excited! In the short term they weren’t excited but in the long term they’ve been very supportive, and now they’re getting annoying and giving me advice that they have no idea what they’re talking about.”

As Chen’s example shows, these cultural differences sometimes come from a particular immigrant background. On the other hand, sometimes they come from a family’s investment in big American companies. Frankie Loscavio has worked at multiple startups, and he’s also worked at the multinational telecommunications company AT&T, where his grandfather also worked for many years. “I don’t necessarily have affection towards AT&T specifically,” says Frankie, “but the classic mentality of a safety net and belief that a big company will take care of you is very much present in my family history.”

Highlighting Similarities and Differences

Because the startup choice is so natural for some people and so surprising for others, it can be very revealing. It’s not just revealing for the startup person — it’s also revealing for the differences in their values between them and their loved ones.

Erin Glenn, who transitioned to startups after working in multinational financial services corporations, says that: “My family never understood. It was confusing for them. A lot of my friends were excited, but I had others who were like, ‘Have you really thought through this? What if it doesn’t work?’ I realized that their mentality and attitude about risk was so different from mine. I just don’t see the world that way. I saw it as fun, exciting, a challenge! I never saw any downside — it was all opportunity. If it didn’t work, I’d figure something else out.”

Michael Rosengarten has worked at both Yahoo and many different startups. He says: “When I first made the leap from a big company to a small company, I had a few people to talk things through with. My girlfriend was one of the most important, given that we share our lives and therefore she’ll share all of the highs and all of the not so lovely lows. Being in a relationship means you think about not just yourself but also your significant other; they’re your other half and your decisions impact the entirety of your relationship.

“I remember my girlfriend’s first reaction,” he continues. “She was like, ‘you’re gonna take what kind of pay cut?’ I took a 50% pay cut and I wanted as much equity as I could get. She was an auditor, working at one of the big 4, so hearing her boyfriend say he would walk away from a 6-figure job to join a bunch of guys he’d never met before… was more risk than she was used to. But my leap of faith was:

‘I have a great relationship, I have great support, and there will always be another job.’

I don’t view careers are linearly progressing, and sometimes ‘backwards’ progress realizes major leaps forward. So when my girlfriend said, ‘You’ve worked so hard to get where you are,’ I explained to her that my goal is to do interesting things with interesting people.”

On the other hand, Rosengarten’s family was both unsurprised and excited. “My grandfather offered to help with our IP work on patents,” says Rosengarten. “And my dad was like: ‘Sounds like fun, I’m surprised you’ve been at Yahoo this long. I’m also surprised that you’re going to another company where you’ll have a boss.’ My dad told me that independence runs in our genes and it’s very difficult for us to follow the path of least resistance. While he probably was worried about his eldest son leaving a good job, he knew how I was wired… I was cut from the same cloth as him.”