4 ms·
> I mean, if it's an actual, viable business, shouldn't one be able to just do it from 9 to 5 like it's a normal job? Do you have an example of a reasonably su
by dtnewman 2y ago
> I mean, if it's an actual, viable business, shouldn't one be able to just do it from 9 to 5 like it's a normal job?
Do you have an example of a reasonably successful business that's a 9-5 job when getting started? Forget startups... let's say you want to open a dry cleaners, bakery or hardware store... none of those seem like they'd be 9-5 jobs. The one exception might be a consulting business if you already have lots of relationships in a space, although most independent consultants who I know tend to have periods of feast and famine.
The issue is that getting your first customers is hard. And then once you have traction, but don't have enough money to hire people, that's hard again. And then once you grow larger, you have more responsibility yet again. At some point, the gears start turning themselves and I've seen many owners who can take a step back, but at that point it's no longer a "startup" but a "business".
- rqtwteye 2y agoFeats and famine is actually not that bad. When I did freelance I had high intensity periods and then low intensity periods. I found that much healthier than the constant never ending medium effort often meaningless grind in the corporate world.
- apantel 2y agoThis to me feels like the natural rhythm of productive work, meaning: if money is no object and you’re working on something that you are intrinsically interested in, you will naturally work in a feats-and-famine pattern. There will be weeks where you don’t take a day off because you are working at peak capacity. Then you reach a logical break in the work and decompress for a little while, doing barely anything. I think the highly-regularized pattern of the 40-hour work week, 9-5, is not a natural rhythm. I think it kills the human spirit with its unnatural regularity and monotony.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]