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Isn't the point of quick growth to work hard in your early years and retire early? Sell, IPO, or just plain bank. Yes, you could have a happier life if you wo
by brador 14y ago
Isn't the point of quick growth to work hard in your early years and retire early? Sell, IPO, or just plain bank.
Yes, you could have a happier life if you worked at a more relaxed pace (there's a guy on HN who works 3, holidays 9), but you'll most likely be working for longer. Wanting to work for longer assumes you will remain fit to work for all those years, mentally and physically. That's not as guaranteed as you'd probably like to think at 25.
My advice: Push yourself, but keep a sharp eye on life balance.
- peteforde 14y agoEach to their own! I happen to really enjoy my "work" and I don't imagine I'll ever stop, so your strategy doesn't have the same payoff for me. As I state in the article, I'm not optimizing for a financial reward but somehow the money keeps getting better as I push it further off my priority list.
- kayoone 14y agoThat assumes working extra hard in your younger years makes you rich before 30, which in a vast majority of cases does not happen, no matter if you work for a startup, bigco or on your own.
- brador 14y agoRich or comfortable wealth or your own personal limits? You can retire to a lifetime of minimum wage and no more work ever for just $200k. A good software engineer could back that up in under 5 years. Play video games all day stress free till death if that's your thing. (not recommended).
- guylhem 14y agoIndeed, not recommended - I'd call that just waiting for death.
- notahacker 14y agoThis. I'd say it's much closer to certainty that you'll enjoy a better lifetime work/life balance by prioritising work/life balance from the start rather than putting everything into hitting a home run. There are good reasons to start a startup; the expectation of retiring rich in your 30s isn't one of them. Wanting to earn all your money in the first quartile of the average workspan also assumes you'll be mentally and physically prepared to use your later life to enjoy all those things you missed out on. Even looking at the apparent success stories, I'd be surprised if none of today's greying CEOs and bankers ever dreamed about spending time doing something other than increasing their assets...