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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

#81

Post by 52-6F-62 »

neonate wrote: post #19
complianceowl wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great point. I can only speak for myself here, but I can 100% confirm that having been raised in a loving, secure, and stable home has probably been the greatest contributing factor to my career success and having a major inclination in life towards optimism. The gratitude towards my parents alone has driven me to push myself harder in my career.

Maybe the best way to look at this kind of environment is that it's a different form of wealth. Correlated with money, in the sense that poverty brings stress and often many forms of brutality, but definitely not identical with it.

I would say I had a great childhood in general, but also with some major stress factors—I feel I can safely say that those stressors don’t leave you on their own so organically. And that kind of stress, even if it’s not conscious all of the time, can colour one’s perspective in an impactful way. Sometimes for better, funny enough—but also for worse in others.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#82

Post by thakobyan »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #24

Funny to read someone else's musings on this as I've been working through many of the same questions for a while. I started full-time in the tech industry before I was out of high school, then went corporate, then got out for a while, then back in, then had my own business for a while, sold that, got a job for a few years, and recently left that job and went traveling for a bit to think about things and consider goin…

Thank you for your insightful answers.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#83

Post by fastball »

gketuma wrote: post #43
Thorentis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $530/mo Wow. Just wow. As an Australian, I cannot fathom having to include $530 into my monthly budget just to ensure I don't end up homeless (or heavily in debt) if I get really sick. I'm not a socialist (I'm quite a centrist when it comes to economic policies), but something about the US system absolutely must change.

That’s actually on the cheap side. If you have say a wife and 2 kids, you pay around $1500 a month on the health exchange.

1500/4 = 375, which is significantly cheaper than 530.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#84

Post by fastball »

txsoftwaredev wrote: post #51
Thorentis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $530/mo Wow. Just wow. As an Australian, I cannot fathom having to include $530 into my monthly budget just to ensure I don't end up homeless (or heavily in debt) if I get really sick. I'm not a socialist (I'm quite a centrist when it comes to economic policies), but something about the US system absolutely must change.

$530 a month would be amazing. I have a wife and 3 kids and we are looking at closer to $1200-$1500 a month for decent health insurance.

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

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#85

Post by jameslk »

bpt3 wrote: post #62
daxfohl wrote: post #4

There's a pretty high correlation between parental wealth and success as a startup founder. I assume it's because of the safety net. My friends who have been successful (and who had blue-collar upbringings like me, and all in mid-40's now) all worked full time jobs until their side projects were self-sustaining. None of them hit unicorn status, but I think all of them have lived healthy, fruitful lives. Also note by…

> 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...

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#86

Post by 52-6F-62 »

gketuma wrote: post #43
Thorentis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $530/mo Wow. Just wow. As an Australian, I cannot fathom having to include $530 into my monthly budget just to ensure I don't end up homeless (or heavily in debt) if I get really sick. I'm not a socialist (I'm quite a centrist when it comes to economic policies), but something about the US system absolutely must change.

That’s actually on the cheap side. If you have say a wife and 2 kids, you pay around $1500 a month on the health exchange.

I don’t know how you guys do it. With the exchange rate that’s probably close the my rent each month!

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#87

Post by batt4good »

daxfohl wrote: post #4

There's a pretty high correlation between parental wealth and success as a startup founder. I assume it's because of the safety net. My friends who have been successful (and who had blue-collar upbringings like me, and all in mid-40's now) all worked full time jobs until their side projects were self-sustaining. None of them hit unicorn status, but I think all of them have lived healthy, fruitful lives. Also note by…

Tbh myself and most devs a year out of college that I know simply aren't good enough to 1) land FAANG jobs right out of college led alone switch to another high-caliber tech company like buffer after just a year. Heck, just switching around without more than a year at a single company was really hard for me.

Maybe I'm just not as skilled as this guy, but doing your own thing takes a ton of stamina and ability. I'd like to think I have ability but stamina is something I'm careful with how I use.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#88

Post by neonate »

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…

Absolutely that can happen as well. But the research on adverse childhood experiences is pretty compelling. Sorry I don't have links handy.

Also, if your relationship with your mother was strong, that counts for a lot. I'm glad you survived and are thriving!

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#89

Post by Yabood »

aantix wrote: post #80
Yabood wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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…

N=1 “ What doesn't kill them doesn't make them stronger: Questioning our current notions of resilience.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29254696/

Right. However, I think the study you're referencing is mainly concerned with parental and physical abuse.

Re: Working for someone vs. doing your own thing

#90

Post by [deleted] »

aksss wrote: post #39
chrisco255 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It becomes a job" doesn't really satisfy me as a description for what occurs when you strike out on your own. Running your own business is much more intense and engaging than having a job. Now, it's important that you see it as multiple jobs, and not just one job. Whatever your day job is you're going to have to wear multiple hats in a startup and it's going to challenge you in different ways than a corporate job wi…

...bookkeeping, reviewing contracts, managing insurance and licensing requirements, networking, the list goes on. You can farm this stuff out when you get big enough, but in the beginning you need to rapidly learn a lot of business skills that you may have only passively come into contact with prior. You will be better for it, even if you decide to go back to corporate at some point - you'll be relieved you don't hav…

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