Be generous, but not stupid

This was the advice I gave an entrepreneur about leaving his company after 3 years of hard work without financial success.  The entrepreneur was in the midst of dealing with the emotionally challenging time of "breaking up" with his partners and was asking me for advice.  I told the entrepreneur that separating from a company that one founded is hard to do and it is precisely at that time that you want to be more generous than not with your co-founders without violating the --  don't be stupid rule.