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"I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

emadibrahim.com

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Re: "I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

#21

Post by PonyGumbo »

I've just passed my five year anniversary. I would do it again, but the financial instability is still extremely stressful, particularly as I enter my mid-thirties. It's always feast or famine.

My observations:

1. Pay off debt as quickly as you can. When you're broke again, you'll be grateful you did.

2. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. When you only have one or two major sources of revenue (or clients), you're as dependent as an employee, but considerably less secure.

3. No matter how unnecessary it may seem, have a real, legally binding contract for any work you commit to do. I thought I did. I was wrong.

4. Budget for marketing. You can't depend on viral marketing alone.

5. Have health insurance. It's expensive and you can't afford it, and I know you're young and healthy, but when your appendix decides it's time to come out, you'll be on the hook for about $22,000.

6. If you're working from home, set boundaries. I won't work past 8pm, and I try to take one day a week off.

Ideally, you'll have some brilliant idea, already live frugally, have no debt, and a craft a bulletproof plan. Realistically, nothing can prepare you for the experience.

Re: "I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

#23

Post by nazgulnarsil »

Brushfire wrote: post #5
eibrahim wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It is very risky. When I made that decision, I basically told myself "what is the worst that could happen?" The answer was "lose my house and rental properties, declare bankruptcy, screw up my credit score". Then I thought "that's not too bad." I graduated in 1999 with zero money and got to where I am, so I can probably do it again in half the time.

Right on!. I'm with you. However, probably not recommended with kids or medical problems. But for everyone else, as long as you can get over the ego parts -- you will have to give up going to nice places for dinner, driving nice cars, having big houses, new toys, vacations etc, all the way to bankruptcy, as you said -- then it is worth it.

i think a lot of these fears are played up by society in order to induce good worker bee syndrome. losing your material wealth ain't shit in the face of freedom. programmers have the most in demand skill in the world right now. if you go broke you can always come back. as Borat said to the chicken: live your life!

Re: "I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

#25

Post by jackchristopher »

eibrahim wrote: post #3
Brushfire wrote: post #2

Overall, I am glad I quit my job. Other than the fact that I am broke, I learned and accomplished a lot and ready to take Yonkly to the next level. Personally, I think this is awesome, but it also should serve as a warning to those that are afraid of financial troubles. Most people who go this route truly do have to risk it all, so if you arent ready for that you should find a way to transition. For me -- living on t…

I agree. It is very risky. When I made that decision, I basically told myself "what is the worst that could happen?" The answer was "lose my house and rental properties, declare bankruptcy, screw up my credit score". Then I thought "that's not too bad." I graduated in 1999 with zero money and got to where I am, so I can probably do it again in half the time.

When people hear "risk takers" they mostly seem to think skydivers. But as bold as skydiving is I have more respect for entrepreneurs. While both efforts are bold, entrepreneurs have to be consistently so. Unless you point them out, people don't think of the founder with no degree living off savings risking it all on a hifalutin startup.

Skydivers and extreme sportsman seem better at signaling [1] risk than nerd entrepreneur. That's a big reason they're better at attracting women too.

[1] http://www.overcomingbias.com/signaling/

Re: "I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

#26

Post by eibrahim »

PonyGumbo wrote: post #21

I've just passed my five year anniversary. I would do it again, but the financial instability is still extremely stressful, particularly as I enter my mid-thirties. It's always feast or famine. My observations: 1. Pay off debt as quickly as you can. When you're broke again, you'll be grateful you did. 2. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. When you only have one or two major sources of revenue (or clients), you…

Great comments. I agree 100%. I need to do better specially in the finance department.

Re: "I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

#27

Post by eibrahim »

lacker wrote: post #22

A bit off topic, but I notice you have both huge credit card debt and rental properties. Isn't that just a losing arbitrage?

yes. Did I mention that I am bad at managing my finances. Plus I thought the houses would go up and I would sell and make a $100k off each. Enough to finance my startup for 2+ years. It didn't work out that way though.

Re: "I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

#28

Post by eibrahim »

bprater wrote: post #16
eibrahim wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am doing small consulting jobs here and there that barely pay the bills but I am mostly focused on Yonkly (the book is almost done). I am also in the process of talking to investors and if things work out then it will be 110% Yonkly.

How much time are you spending on the marketing aspect of Yonkly? If you aren't and started spending an hour or two a day -- seriously attacking it, you might be able to get ramen profitable quickly. For instance, the site doesn't quickly drive home why I need your service. It kind of muddles around. If you tightened things up, starting an affiliate program, did some AdWords, etc. you might be able to focus on the pr…

There is just not enough hours in the day. I do need to focus more on marketing but I am not an expert. Can you recommend anyone that will work for equity? :)

I googled Yonly and everything looks. What exactly are you referring to that needs to be fixed?

Re: "I Quit" 1 Year anniversary

#29

Post by eibrahim »

fraXis wrote: post #15

Thanks for sharing this. Very inspirational. Where are you hosting your site? Are you hosting at Dreamhost (whois data)? I don't see anything on their site about ASP.Net apps. If not, where are you hosting it or are you doing it yourself in a data center? Thanks.

I am hosting in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud. I am ready to scale :)
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