Live data from Hacker News

The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship (Continued)

petewarden.typepad.com

1–7 of 7 posts

Re: The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship (Continued)

#5
The article is a little sketchy but I can relate to the issue that is being put across here. I work a day job (as a systems analyst) that I'm quite passionate about, and my "side project" is as an artist / illustrator.

To get suitable stretches of uninterrupted time outside of a 9-10 hour day at work, I have to be militant about influence on both time and energy on any given day. The energy one is the hardest one to manage, and it involves cutting a lot of people out of my life, specifically the "draining" ones.

I used to be the kind of person that would invest a lot of energy in trying to get other people motivated or help them through hard times, then I realised I had nothing left to keep my own life moving forward.

I stagnated for a period of about 2 years then drew the line and cut off anyone that I found repeatedly crashing in on my life looking for support without doing a damned thing to help themselves.

At this point in life, professionally I'm achieving about 2x-3x what I used to but my personal life is abhorrent. It's a trade I'm willing to make but something that will need to be balanced out as I get older, as I'm already in a circumstance where I have few non-professional peers what so ever.

Re: The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship (Continued)

#6
post #3

My solution so far has been to be a dork that women don't even want to talk to. >_<

My wife has a beautiful friend who wants to marry a nerdy guy... her phrase . So your strategy could pay off! There's a great song by an English band: "sit down next to me" by James, which works for me when I feel dorky.