An obsession with mortality born of early loss can create internal urgency: a founder who deeply understands that life can end at any moment may be more predisposed to take greater risks, drive harder, and leave something tangible behind.

“He talks about death incessantly,” a friend of Turner’s remarked. “Over the years, killing himself was a high-priority topic of conversation. Most of the time he was flippant about it. He would talk in this joking way about how, if things did not work out, he could always sell the business, how all he needed was a roof over his head and some food. Then he would say, ‘If things get really bad, I can always kill myself.’ He could not go several days without talking about suicide.” If there is an upside to an obsession with mortality, it may be that it creates internal urgency. If you understand, deeply understand, that life can end at any moment, you may be more predisposed to make the most of one’s own. To take greater risks, to drive a little harder, to push to leave something tangible behind.

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