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Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

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Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#191

Post by q-base »

ss3000 wrote: post #170
q-base wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that this also depends a lot on how draining and intense your day job is. Some jobs require too much of you to be able to do anything once you are done - or do so in periods. You will probably have to decide what is most important to you. You cannot chase and strive for promotions, extra responsibility etc. on your day job while still wanting to do your own thing in your spare time. Perhaps you need to lo…

I would argue that _most_ full time jobs probably require too much of us than we should be willing to accept, regardless of if we have energy left over to do anything else outside of those hours. 40 hours per week is more than half of most people's waking hours. That's a terrifying amount of my life to have to spend on something I don't _absolutely love_ doing, and I sincerely hope I can find a way out of it sooner r…

I agree and we cannot do anything about the hours apart from perhaps trying to find some part-time job, but that is probably not easy either.

So my point was just to not bet full-on on two horses at one. If your priority really is your side-gig or starting your own business, then do not run too fast in the hamster wheel also. Put yourself in a position where it might not be the most fulfilling work, but it serves the purpose of giving you economic room for pursuing your own business.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#192

Post by chrisweekly »

m0zg wrote: post #103

>> If I work on my own business alone, I won’t have co-workers until I hire them. There's another, more subtle issue. If you aren't sitting on a million-dollar seed round, there's a _huge_ energy gap between working alone and hiring someone, even for a consultancy, never mind some kind of product effort on which you work for a year before you get any revenue. This is in part because of the additional taxes you have t…

Partnering informally with a "collective" of like-minded independents is one way to thread that needle.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#193

Post by tannerc »

bogdanoff_2 wrote: post #125
tannerc wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m writing a book on how I do this! I’ll be sharing here on HN once it’s complete. But the TL;DR for the chapter on motivation and energy comes down to: work on things that improve your own life, set clear objectives, and work in small chunks. The book itself is being written in 30 minute chunks throughout my week because that’s all the time I can spare.

I found that back when I had lots of free time, my style when doing projects was: I start where I left off, I get engrossed and code late into the night, repeat that one or two more days, get bored and "burned out" from the project, don't touch it for a week or so (sometimes I work on some other projects), repeat. Of course, that's not really sustainable. But 30 minutes does not seem feasible for me. It's not like yo…

I’ve found 30 minutes works just fine for programming as well as the more mundane tasks. Primarily because it’s not always 30 minutes, that’s just the minimum I can get away with on a regular cadence.

Then a spare weekend will finally come around and I’ll have made enough progress that I want to spend an hour, or three, on the project.

The purpose is to make progress however you can. This is also why my other points are so important: work on something that will directly benefit you (scratch your own itch) and have a clear objective outlined.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#194

Post by bpt3 »

manicdee wrote: post #93
bpt3 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a pretty high correlation between parental wealth and success as a startup founder. I'm not disagreeing, but is there any research to support this that you can share, or is it based on your personal experience?

There is plenty of evidence supporting positive correlation between parental incomes/wealth and the child’s success in academic and commercial endeavours, but little evidence either way relating to success at starting a new business. But given that the secret to successfully launching a business is to have enough resources to fail many times, it stands to reason that successful startups are highly dependent on founde…

Yes, this makes sense, but hard data would be much more compelling.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#195

Post by bpt3 »

jameslk wrote: post #85
bpt3 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a pretty high correlation between parental wealth and success as a startup founder. I'm not disagreeing, but is there any research to support this that you can share, or is it based on your personal experience?

This article links some studies related to entrepreneurship and risk taking based on family wealth, but I haven't dove into them thoroughly. Worth checking out: https://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene...

Thanks!

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#196

Post by chosenbreed37 »

steve1977 wrote: post #183
pinky1417 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a startup founder with wealthy parents, this seems likely. Not only can parental wealth serve as a safety net, but you might also get direct investment from your family, have a safety net if things don’t work out (enabling you to take more risks), not have to exert as much effort taking care of sick, old, etc. family members because you can hire people, get access to powerful family connections, and learn from hig…

I think it's a very common thing with success that people want to attribute it to their skills and not factors such as pure luck. Might also be a cultural thing, in many societies there are myths of equality and everybody having a chance.

> ..., in many societies there are myths of equality and everybody having a chance.

LOL

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#197

Post by AwesomeFaic »

spir wrote: post #135
kentrado wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to try that approach but I just don't have the energy after working all day to come home and start investing time chasing wildly creative projects.

A hundred years ago a wonderful slender book was written, "How To Live On 24 Hours A Day" by Arnold Bennett. He suggests getting up early and doing your passion projects before work. https://www.amazon.com/How-Live-24-Hours-Day/dp/1603863680

I'm trying to do a bit of that, but it's understandably difficult. I have an easy day job time-wise, but even then I feel like I rarely do my best passion project work at home. Lately I'll wake up at 5 and work, go to the office from ~8 to ~4, and then get a couple more hours done at home afterwards.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#198

Post by justinclift »

Yabood wrote: post #76
neonate wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the research on adverse childhood experiences, there's likely a subtler advantage too, for founders who were raised in more stable and secure environments. Growing up under greater pressure (violence, abuse, trauma) leaves you less resilient, more risk averse, more at risk. I'm not saying wealthy families don't have this, or that poor families can't be stable and secure. But on average it probably makes a diffe…

>> Growing up under greater pressure (violence, abuse, trauma) leaves you less resilient, more risk averse, more at risk. Speaking from personal experience, I have to disagree. I was raised in Baghdad by a single parent, my mother. We lived through three major wars, almost never had a steady income till after 2004 when I was 19 and started working for the US military as an interpreter. I believe growing up under grea…

Possibly interesting, a behaviour I used to see from people with "bad" upbringings is a desire (or requirement) for chaos.

eg they get their life on track, but it seems to be "too boring" (or similar) for them, so they start creating chaos with the people around them to get things "back to normal"

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#199

Post by fastball »

tempsy wrote: post #91
fastball wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused. You're currently paying $300 pp pm. That is much better than $530 pm.

the per person amount hardly matters for a family's budget...the fact is you're paying far more than a single person

"I'm not sure why I can't afford to feed my children, I only have 12 of them."

Children are getting covered just like adults are. Just because they aren't/can't earn an income to cover it doesn't mean it doesn't cost just as much to the insurance provider. In fact, children tend to go to the doctor more, so...

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#200

Post by tonyedgecombe »

zerr wrote: post #185
tannerc wrote: post #2

I like Austin Kleon's insights here [1]: "A day job gives you money, a connection to the world, and a routine. Freedom from financial stress also means freedom in your art. As photographer Bill Cunningham says, 'If you don’t take money, they cant tell you what to do.' Because the real truth is, once you start making money doing what you love, it BECOMES A JOB. And with it comes all the hassle of a job." It's why I've…

The key is to have a high-paid part-time job.

Or low outgoings.
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