

Quiting the day job and going for it - MrSafe
http://www.cozysystems.com/blog/

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idlewords
A lot of these "startup as self-help" threads seem to draw a false distinction
between entrepreneurship and full-time employment, framing the latter as some
kind of moral cowardice.

While it may not make you feel like a Nietzschean superman, there are
compelling reasons to consider finishing your degree and getting a normal job
- for example, the chance to work with a large team of experts who know what
they are doing, or to have access to world-class infrastructure, or to work in
a field that you'd never be able to enter as an entrepreneur (steering Mars
rovers, say).

It's fun to take a risk and pursue a dream (even if you don't appear to have
any clear product idea), but there are reasons beyond risk avoidance why many
people don't choose to go that route.

~~~
staunch
There's nothing false about the distinction between working for someone and
being an entrepreneur. They're extremely different. One is financially low
risk/low reward and the other high risk/high reward. I don't think it's
cowardice to choose to get a full time job, but it definitely is brave to turn
down a high salary and start a company, when you don't already have money.

Your examples are of people that want to do other things, more so than being
an entrepreneur. Those people obviously should do whatever makes them happy.
For the people that want to be entrepreneurs, above those other desires,
there's nothing worse than getting a regular job.

The world is full of people who wanted to be entrepreneurs, but got tied down
in full time jobs. Some of those people manage to break free, but as a
percentage it's probably quite low.

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seldo
Please insert the missing T in "quitting" before my OCD brain gnaws its way
out of my skull.

~~~
Sukotto
Actually, it's missing an "L", not a "T". :-)

~~~
jrgnsd
Dude, no. It's exactly this type of humor that makes my wife laugh at me, and
not with me. I LOVE it!

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raffi
Two classes and a thesis away. I'd finish the grad degree and try to get some
of the groundwork for the startup set while in grad school.

I finished an MSc and made Feedback Army and started on After the Deadline at
the same time. If both failed, I would tell myself "at least I have the
degree"

~~~
larsberg
Two classes and a thesis is still at least 3 years away.

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edw519
_I’m sharing everything with you. You’ll get to observe how much money I’m
starting with, the things I have to buy, the documents I have to fill out-all
that is involved in starting up. You’ll be the first to know when I biff it._

This concerns me. If OP has enough time to "share everything", he's probably
not spending enough time on the real work he has to do. Worse, the "sharing
project" can easily expand to consume most of OP's time without him even
realizing it.

OP, I admire your initiative and look forward to hearing about your success.
But I'm willing to wait. I'd rather have you focus 100% on the task at hand
and share with us later. I care less about the timeliness of your reports than
the quality of your results. Best wishes!

~~~
staunch
Knowing that he's going to be telling everyone what he's doing is probably
good motivation to do well, so he doesn't embarrass himself.

Actual time spent on this is probably not worth worrying about. If he's like
most people, procrastination and mistaken decisions will likely sap far more
time from him than anything else ever will.

------
aarongough
I'm quite excited at the moment as I am doing a similar thing! I'm putting
together the background necessary to leave my job at the end of March and work
on my personal projects.

It's a great feeling to be making the leap!

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nroach
OP, Usually, I recommend putting the "going for it" part before the "quitting
the day job" part. They don't always have to be mutually exclusive. I admire
your resolve and wish you great success. Let us know how it goes.

------
pmichaud
Where is the data I've read that says most people are better off (in terms of
lifetime earnings) as wage slaves? I want to examine it closely to see to whom
it applies.

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markkoberlein
Do you have a Twitter account that I could follow? Interested in following
your story but I killed my RSS reader a while ago.

~~~
mcantor
Why did you decide to quit RSS? Distraction, not enough bang for your buck?

~~~
markkoberlein
Mostly because it took too much time for me to scan through my RSS reader
instead of using Twitter.

If I see something I like on Twitter, I go to the actual website to read the
article (which I assume the author appreciates).

Also, using an RSS reader created a lot of subconscious pressure for me to
read all the unread entries because it was just another "inbox". Twitter lists
is a better alternative for me because it's just a stream.

~~~
i386
Hmm, but the thing about Twitter is that it really only gives you interesting
things to read within your existing group of followers (At least for me).

Intelligent readers like Google Reader can recommend you new feeds that you
might be interested in based on your existing subscriptions and the people you
share your 'shared feeds' with.

On cruft, maybe its time 'inbox zero' applied to your RSS reader too? I tend
to drop more informative feeds into a single folder and read from there.

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noelchurchill
Hey, what does Cozy Systems do? Besides _"Makers of all things good and
sometimes software"_

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astine
Good Luck, but like edw519 said economize your time. :)

