11–20 of 33 posts
I didn't think about explaining the obvious right away, so putting a comment here. Having a 'regular' job of a manager or a software engineer is fine but feels like I am not using most of my skills and not developing as a person. So the question really is how to apply this broad skillset to the world without getting into the confines of typical SWE roles.
Companies don't want all of your skills. They want a specific subset. You need to do things outside of your 'role' to grow.
I'm in a similar position. I think one of the challenges is that you can get a guaranteed high salary working full-time in tech. A great success in entrepreneurship might mean acquiring your previous salary after several years of working hard and making little money. Of course, you might also strike it right, but you might not. I'm currently working part-time on retainer, which allows me to work less than full-time a…
This is probably the way to go. Having _some_ income drastically improves the equation in your favor (due to tax laws and compounding growth).
Unfortunately, when I did this, I struggled balancing my time between the work as well as wondering if my startup failed b/c I half-assed it working part time or if its just not a viable business..
I didn't think about explaining the obvious right away, so putting a comment here. Having a 'regular' job of a manager or a software engineer is fine but feels like I am not using most of my skills and not developing as a person. So the question really is how to apply this broad skillset to the world without getting into the confines of typical SWE roles.
Sounds like you should do some reflection and evaluation on the emotional side of things. What part of your dream of being an entrepreneur actually sounds good to you? If you want fame, software entrepreneurship may not be optimal for example. Ultimately a job can be evaluated as: ( Money * Job Satisfaction * Impact ) / (Time * Energy )
Currently, I like doing many things, finding the bottlenecks, and overcoming them. Today it's demand generation, tomorrow it's product and tech, and ultimately it's me being inadequate in some capacity. Which means lots of growth as a person, which feels very real, like you can be shy of being in front of another person and therefore avoid doing sales calls. This is big and feels much more real than 'growing' in an organisation where you're told to do XYZ to impress your manager so that they can beg their managers to get you into the raise quota, or even worse, simply bang your head against the 'we don't have money now' wall at a typical smaller company.
Being in control, jumping on interesting things to constantly learn something new and stuff like that are a good bonus as well.
I'm in a similar position. I think one of the challenges is that you can get a guaranteed high salary working full-time in tech. A great success in entrepreneurship might mean acquiring your previous salary after several years of working hard and making little money. Of course, you might also strike it right, but you might not. I'm currently working part-time on retainer, which allows me to work less than full-time a…
> I'm currently working part-time on retainer, which allows me to work less than full-time and still make enough money to live (definitely less than a full-time job, but enough to live comfortably). This is probably the way to go. Having _some_ income drastically improves the equation in your favor (due to tax laws and compounding growth). Unfortunately, when I did this, I struggled balancing my time between the work…
- Immediately change work hours, work 4 x 10 hour days, if you can handle it. Can be tough for some.
- Go partial part-time, work 4 x 8 hour days, or 3 x 10 hour days (recommended)
Now that you've freed up your time, build!
DO NOT STOP YOUR DAY JOB, YOU WILL JUST BURN THROUGH YOUR CASH AND BE UNDER IMMENSE STRESS TO DELIVER. THIS IS NEVER THE RIGHT ANSWER, UNLESS YOUR PROJECTS ARE MAKING MORE THAN YOUR DAY JOB.
DO NOT DO PART TIME WORK ON TOP OF FULL TIME WORK. YOU WILL JUST BURN-OUT, DO WORSE AT YOUR JOB, AND HAVE NO ROOM TO THINK ABOUT PROJECTS. YOU NEED TO DROP THE FULL TIME WORK. SIMPLE AS THAT.
NOW, Build stuff YOU need, or your FAMILY needs
- Build simple MVPs, have a very fast feedback cycle:
- Build MVP -> get feedback -> apply feedback -> get more feedback ...
You mention your skillset is broad. Go DEEP in 1 or 2 areas in 2025. Stop having shallow knowledge, because your ideas will remain shallow if you don't address this. You do Software already, why not focus on 1 or 2 particular areas this year, with your newfound free time? Eg heres some areas I've thought up just now for you:
- Cybersecurity - Implement OWasp top 10 tips for Wordpress sites (developed as a wordpress plugin, or site, or browser extension etc)
- Backend - Build tools for API management, API testing, API benchmarking, API mocking, containerization
- Frontend - focus on UI, or UX, or accessibility, or performance, or a specific framework
- Frontends for firmware - hone your C/C++ skills and build simple frontends for users to configure hardware devices (Raspberry PI, STM32, ATMega etc)
- Browser extensions - Bothered by how websites look/feel? Bothered by cookies/privacy/lack-of? Bothered by ads/popups? Paywalled sites? Want Reddit to look better / more custom? Build a browser extension/s to address these issues. They are very easy to start, and cost nothing to run.
- IDE extensions, build extensions/themes for VSCode etc. Very easy to get into.
- Command line - did you know a group of people are making 6 figures selling coffee via SSH only?
- Graphics/gaming - Why not explore low-level graphics? How about Game development? Asset Pipelines?
- AI/Machine-Learning - Play around with some LLMs. Combine them with one of the above areas (eg browser extensions)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm currently working part-time on retainer, which allows me to work less than full-time and still make enough money to live (definitely less than a full-time job, but enough to live comfortably). This is probably the way to go. Having _some_ income drastically improves the equation in your favor (due to tax laws and compounding growth). Unfortunately, when I did this, I struggled balancing my time between the work…
I can totally feel the 'half-assed' part. One of the real reasons I am avoiding getting a well-paid job is because it feels that it's impossible keep it and dedicate enough time to anything else really, let alone building a business on the side.
In "The psychology of Money" the author warns the reader to don't make bets that need to go perfectly to plan. Creating a project every month until somethings sticks, requires that at least one of them can become a sustainable business. But if you can't achieve that, its very difficult to catch up to your peers or re-enter the workforce.
I spent the last 5 years working in Big Tech and have a large amount in savings where I plan on leaving, not b/c it make sense financially, but I just need something fresh in my life. Even if that fresh thing fails horribly, I have more than I need for retirement due to low lifestyle costs and careful saving.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm currently working part-time on retainer, which allows me to work less than full-time and still make enough money to live (definitely less than a full-time job, but enough to live comfortably). This is probably the way to go. Having _some_ income drastically improves the equation in your favor (due to tax laws and compounding growth). Unfortunately, when I did this, I struggled balancing my time between the work…
I can totally feel the 'half-assed' part. One of the real reasons I am avoiding getting a well-paid job is because it feels that it's impossible keep it and dedicate enough time to anything else really, let alone building a business on the side.
Spend your 30-40 hours at your job, drop to part time (3 x 10 hour days if you can) up-skill at your job, and use the extra 2 days to build stuff. Its very do-able
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can totally feel the 'half-assed' part. One of the real reasons I am avoiding getting a well-paid job is because it feels that it's impossible keep it and dedicate enough time to anything else really, let alone building a business on the side.
I'd caution you about giving up a well paid career. In "The psychology of Money" the author warns the reader to don't make bets that need to go perfectly to plan. Creating a project every month until somethings sticks, requires that at least one of them can become a sustainable business. But if you can't achieve that, its very difficult to catch up to your peers or re-enter the workforce. I spent the last 5 years wor…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can totally feel the 'half-assed' part. One of the real reasons I am avoiding getting a well-paid job is because it feels that it's impossible keep it and dedicate enough time to anything else really, let alone building a business on the side.
I'd caution you about giving up a well paid career. In "The psychology of Money" the author warns the reader to don't make bets that need to go perfectly to plan. Creating a project every month until somethings sticks, requires that at least one of them can become a sustainable business. But if you can't achieve that, its very difficult to catch up to your peers or re-enter the workforce. I spent the last 5 years wor…
What makes it so hard to reenter the workforce?
If you want to make money, you should focus at 1, narrow. You need broader vision to find opportunity to make money on 1.