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There's this typical entrepreneur story-line that everyone loves to tell. VC-backed entrepreneur that went "all in", quit their job, and produced a unicorn. Tec

There's this typical entrepreneur story-line that everyone loves to tell. VC-backed entrepreneur that went "all in", quit their job, and produced a unicorn. TechCrunch loves this stuff. I feel like this is so misleading and makes people feel like they need to quit their jobs in order to be successful in making side projects or businesses. In general, I feel like we need to eliminate dichotomies in life. So I wrote from another point of view: one that I am currently living, working FT and building side projects. In many ways I think it's: 1) Doable 2) Perhaps the most healthy and thoughtful approach. Interested to hear other people's thoughts. Do you really need to quit your job to build a successful business?

dasil003 8y ago
The crux is how you define success. There's a reason business is so cut-throat and usually amoral—it's hard to make a scalable business. If you want this kind of outlier success as an entrepreneur you need to go all-in. On the other hand, keeping a day job and modest lifestyle enables a broader range of success where you build stuff on your own terms that maybe makes a few bucks or improves someone's life, but without the pressure to go big. The vast majority of ideas can't become massive corporations, but a lot of them might change the world in a much more positive way if you can find a way to take money out of the equation.
hinkley 8y ago
I much prefer the old trope of starting in your garage. But I don’t know if VCs killed that or overconsumption just filled up all the garages.
- robbrit 8y ago
  If you can afford a garage in the Bay Area, you can't afford to run a startup because you're too busy paying your mortgage ;)
  - hinkley 8y ago
    Or you can just sell the house and live like a king in Patagonia...
  - jdreyfuss 8y ago
    Garages are all converted bedrooms now
parthdesai 8y ago
Not really. Remember DHH started and built Basecamp 1.0 and rails while still working on his consultancy business 40 hours a week. Not every company needs to be next Fb/Google/Amazon. Nothing wrong with having revenue in millions and not billions if you are profitable.
- stephsmithio 8y ago
  Yes exactly. DHH is a great example. I feel like the only metric of success these days is unicorn or not. Again, a harmful dichotomy.
- madamelic 8y ago
  > Remember DHH started and built Basecamp 1.0 and rails while still working on his consultancy business 40 hours a week. I don't want to assume anything, but from what you've said, it seems like scaling his time up and down as needed would've been very easy. People with hardset 35 - 40 hour / week jobs where they aren't their own boss can't really scale time commitments that easily. Otherwise, I definitely agree.
  - parthdesai 8y ago
    Apparently he only worked one hour a day on it after working hours everyday. And by one hour, he meant proper one hour, without any distractions.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
burger_moon 8y ago
I'm currently going through the beginning stages of this and I'm finding it incredibly difficult to focus and build something while also having a full time dev job that of course requires over 40hrs of work, plus time spent commuting everyday. It's really about not being financially independent that keeps me at my job but I can't see why you'd stay at your current job if you can afford to quit and focus entirely on your new venture. To me it doesn't feel like a healthy option to be essentially working a part time job on top of your normal job while also trying to maintain balance in your life, there simply isn't enough time for it all. Maybe this is crazy, but it almost feels like getting fired with a severance (something most of the big companies do, but not something you'd get from a startup I'd imagine) would be a blessing in disguise because you'd have a steady stream of income for a couple months allowing you to focus 100% on getting off the ground. Of course if it doesn't take off then you'll have egg on your face and be in a much much worse position. edit: It looks like most people are talking about doing this to build a unicorn billion dollar business, but I'm talking just generally I guess in regards to starting a new business.
- worms76 8y ago
  This definitely strikes a chord with me. I feel that if it's just one person working on a side project then there is less pressure to deliver. On the other hand, when one is working with other people (in our case, I'm the sole developer) on creating a new business it becomes extremely exhausting to manage a full-time job, a new business, staying fit and still having time for social engagements. Fortunately, I have been able to take some time off from full-time work and spend more time on our new business and already feel so much more productive.
justfor1comment 8y ago
I think there are two kinds of entrepreneurs. One is those trying to replace their current job with a hobby they are passionate about and makes them roughly the same amount of money as their current job. Two is those that want to replace their current job with a new one that is 100x more monetarily lucrative than their current one. Your blog caters more to type one entrepreneurs whereas the TechCrunch glorified stories cater to type two entrepreneurs.

dasil003 8y ago

The crux is how you define success. There's a reason business is so cut-throat and usually amoral—it's hard to make a scalable business. If you want this kind of outlier success as an entrepreneur you need to go all-in. On the other hand, keeping a day job and modest lifestyle enables a broader range of success where you build stuff on your own terms that maybe makes a few bucks or improves someone's life, but without the pressure to go big. The vast majority of ideas can't become massive corporations, but a lot of them might change the world in a much more positive way if you can find a way to take money out of the equation.

hinkley 8y ago

I much prefer the old trope of starting in your garage. But I don’t know if VCs killed that or overconsumption just filled up all the garages.

robbrit 8y ago
If you can afford a garage in the Bay Area, you can't afford to run a startup because you're too busy paying your mortgage ;)
- hinkley 8y ago
  Or you can just sell the house and live like a king in Patagonia...
- jdreyfuss 8y ago
  Garages are all converted bedrooms now

parthdesai 8y ago

Not really. Remember DHH started and built Basecamp 1.0 and rails while still working on his consultancy business 40 hours a week. Not every company needs to be next Fb/Google/Amazon. Nothing wrong with having revenue in millions and not billions if you are profitable.

stephsmithio 8y ago
Yes exactly. DHH is a great example. I feel like the only metric of success these days is unicorn or not. Again, a harmful dichotomy.
madamelic 8y ago
> Remember DHH started and built Basecamp 1.0 and rails while still working on his consultancy business 40 hours a week. I don't want to assume anything, but from what you've said, it seems like scaling his time up and down as needed would've been very easy. People with hardset 35 - 40 hour / week jobs where they aren't their own boss can't really scale time commitments that easily. Otherwise, I definitely agree.
- parthdesai 8y ago
  Apparently he only worked one hour a day on it after working hours everyday. And by one hour, he meant proper one hour, without any distractions.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

burger_moon 8y ago

I'm currently going through the beginning stages of this and I'm finding it incredibly difficult to focus and build something while also having a full time dev job that of course requires over 40hrs of work, plus time spent commuting everyday. It's really about not being financially independent that keeps me at my job but I can't see why you'd stay at your current job if you can afford to quit and focus entirely on your new venture. To me it doesn't feel like a healthy option to be essentially working a part time job on top of your normal job while also trying to maintain balance in your life, there simply isn't enough time for it all. Maybe this is crazy, but it almost feels like getting fired with a severance (something most of the big companies do, but not something you'd get from a startup I'd imagine) would be a blessing in disguise because you'd have a steady stream of income for a couple months allowing you to focus 100% on getting off the ground. Of course if it doesn't take off then you'll have egg on your face and be in a much much worse position. edit: It looks like most people are talking about doing this to build a unicorn billion dollar business, but I'm talking just generally I guess in regards to starting a new business.

worms76 8y ago
This definitely strikes a chord with me. I feel that if it's just one person working on a side project then there is less pressure to deliver. On the other hand, when one is working with other people (in our case, I'm the sole developer) on creating a new business it becomes extremely exhausting to manage a full-time job, a new business, staying fit and still having time for social engagements. Fortunately, I have been able to take some time off from full-time work and spend more time on our new business and already feel so much more productive.

justfor1comment 8y ago

I think there are two kinds of entrepreneurs. One is those trying to replace their current job with a hobby they are passionate about and makes them roughly the same amount of money as their current job. Two is those that want to replace their current job with a new one that is 100x more monetarily lucrative than their current one. Your blog caters more to type one entrepreneurs whereas the TechCrunch glorified stories cater to type two entrepreneurs.