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Is not about who do you work for, is about what you own. Running your own show makes you the owner of your work, you could sell your business, pass it down to y

Is not about who do you work for, is about what you own. Running your own show makes you the owner of your work, you could sell your business, pass it down to your family, etc... when you work for somebody else, you are contracting your time, without any ownership, you can't leave your kids your Senior Engineer position at Google, but you could leave them a profitable business. Is like renting vs buying, sometimes makes more sense to rent, but most of the time is better to buy(long term).

meisanother 4y ago
I feel like the "leaving them a profitable business" is quite hopeful. Chances are that the business will go under by the time you want to get out of it. Then giving the burden to your kids down the line seems even more risky. They will probably not want to follow your path and maybe having this weight on their shoulder will change their life decisions in an unfavored manner. Just my two cents, I think working for yourself is fine, but it still seems like a time-constrained endeavor.
- masterof0 4y ago
  > Chances are that the business will go under by the time you want to get out of it. What makes you think that? Obviously there is always risks associated to almost everything you do, and running a business is no exception, but I don't think most businesses follow the "go down by the time you want to get out." route. > Then giving the burden to your kids down the line seems even more risky. The burden of an asset? You can always sell your parent's business, for cents on the dollar in the worst case?, and you still get more than what you would get if your parents had nothing. Also cash savings and running a business are not exclusive, actually, usually people running business have more assets/cash that people working for somebody else. > I think working for yourself is fine, but it still seems like a time-constrained endeavor. Working for somebody else's business is also a time-constrained endeavor. I'm not saying that everyone should be running a business, you could make the case of a VP at Amazon making way more than an indie hacker, sure, the thing is the possible amount of VPs at companies big enough with such high salaries, are the order of hundreds , in the other hand, there is thousands of people making a lot of money online, with all type of niche apps and/or services.
  - meisanother 4y ago
    I don't know how much we can relate to smaller business, but it does seem like the average life expectancy of a business is lesser than the expected work span. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1259275/average-company-lifespan/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1259275/average-company-... I do agree on the case for the value of the business as an asset. > cash savings and running a business are not exclusive, actually, usually people running business have more assets/cash that people working for somebody else. It's true that it does make sense, especially since you probably get more financial literacy by running a business. I've been pondering how to have my own consulting myself for a while. Maybe I'm a bit sour of not having found a proper way yet...
    - masterof0 4y ago
      I feel you. I'm more or less in the same situation, I have a cosy job at FAANG, but I have at least 2 very close friends who run their online hustle and not only make more than me, but also pay less taxes ;). One of the hardest things for me is finding a good niche for a business.
sjducb 4y ago
This really changed my perspective.
spywaregorilla 4y ago
I'd rather my parents leave me a bundle of cash rather than saddling me with their startup.
- dieselgate 4y ago
  This made me laugh because of the frankness. I interpreted the above as being more “sustainable small business” than a startup but maybe it’s irrelevant.
  - spywaregorilla 4y ago
    It's hard though. Running a business is a full time job. Most businesses need to adapt. Handing over control to kids might not sit well with current employees or those with a financial interest in it. And the kid may very well want to do literally anything else and now be unable to do so. Especially if the business is not easily sold or would be seen as against the family wishes to do so. If it's just a financial interest in a business that the kid won't be controlling, then it's just money anyway.
- masterof0 4y ago
  You can sell your business, the cash you can leave to your kids, is upper bounded by how high you can get into the corporate ladder, which for most people, is not very high. Your family can always sell your business and get that cash. I was also referring to a profitable business, not a startup (is pretty uncommon for people to leave startups to their next in kin). I know people who have someone else running their family business (with a pretty good deal for both parties) and focus on other stuff they care about.
  - spywaregorilla 4y ago
    You can try to sell your business. Selling a business is non-trivial. Especially if you're not close to it and don't know it. The cash you leave to your kids owning a business is upper bounded by how well your business does. Which, sure, could be better or worse, but most notably has a chance of being worth nothing. There are for sure many stories where a family business worked out great. But I would prefer an equal value in cash over a randomly chosen small business any day. Even if we subset it to the profitable ones.

meisanother 4y ago

I feel like the "leaving them a profitable business" is quite hopeful. Chances are that the business will go under by the time you want to get out of it. Then giving the burden to your kids down the line seems even more risky. They will probably not want to follow your path and maybe having this weight on their shoulder will change their life decisions in an unfavored manner. Just my two cents, I think working for yourself is fine, but it still seems like a time-constrained endeavor.

masterof0 4y ago
> Chances are that the business will go under by the time you want to get out of it. What makes you think that? Obviously there is always risks associated to almost everything you do, and running a business is no exception, but I don't think most businesses follow the "go down by the time you want to get out." route. > Then giving the burden to your kids down the line seems even more risky. The burden of an asset? You can always sell your parent's business, for cents on the dollar in the worst case?, and you still get more than what you would get if your parents had nothing. Also cash savings and running a business are not exclusive, actually, usually people running business have more assets/cash that people working for somebody else. > I think working for yourself is fine, but it still seems like a time-constrained endeavor. Working for somebody else's business is also a time-constrained endeavor. I'm not saying that everyone should be running a business, you could make the case of a VP at Amazon making way more than an indie hacker, sure, the thing is the possible amount of VPs at companies big enough with such high salaries, are the order of hundreds , in the other hand, there is thousands of people making a lot of money online, with all type of niche apps and/or services.
- meisanother 4y ago
  I don't know how much we can relate to smaller business, but it does seem like the average life expectancy of a business is lesser than the expected work span. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1259275/average-company-lifespan/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1259275/average-company-... I do agree on the case for the value of the business as an asset. > cash savings and running a business are not exclusive, actually, usually people running business have more assets/cash that people working for somebody else. It's true that it does make sense, especially since you probably get more financial literacy by running a business. I've been pondering how to have my own consulting myself for a while. Maybe I'm a bit sour of not having found a proper way yet...
  - masterof0 4y ago
    I feel you. I'm more or less in the same situation, I have a cosy job at FAANG, but I have at least 2 very close friends who run their online hustle and not only make more than me, but also pay less taxes ;). One of the hardest things for me is finding a good niche for a business.

sjducb 4y ago

This really changed my perspective.

spywaregorilla 4y ago

I'd rather my parents leave me a bundle of cash rather than saddling me with their startup.

dieselgate 4y ago
This made me laugh because of the frankness. I interpreted the above as being more “sustainable small business” than a startup but maybe it’s irrelevant.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  It's hard though. Running a business is a full time job. Most businesses need to adapt. Handing over control to kids might not sit well with current employees or those with a financial interest in it. And the kid may very well want to do literally anything else and now be unable to do so. Especially if the business is not easily sold or would be seen as against the family wishes to do so. If it's just a financial interest in a business that the kid won't be controlling, then it's just money anyway.
masterof0 4y ago
You can sell your business, the cash you can leave to your kids, is upper bounded by how high you can get into the corporate ladder, which for most people, is not very high. Your family can always sell your business and get that cash. I was also referring to a profitable business, not a startup (is pretty uncommon for people to leave startups to their next in kin). I know people who have someone else running their family business (with a pretty good deal for both parties) and focus on other stuff they care about.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  You can try to sell your business. Selling a business is non-trivial. Especially if you're not close to it and don't know it. The cash you leave to your kids owning a business is upper bounded by how well your business does. Which, sure, could be better or worse, but most notably has a chance of being worth nothing. There are for sure many stories where a family business worked out great. But I would prefer an equal value in cash over a randomly chosen small business any day. Even if we subset it to the profitable ones.