
Self-employment is anything but the dream - nreece
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/blogs/work-in-progress/and-the--top-10-employers-are/20101029-175yr.html
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ryansloan
My father (who has always been self-employed) once said "the best thing about
being self-employed is that I can choose my own hours. I can work whatever 100
hours a week I want."

~~~
dmfdmf
My father's saying was "I can work 24 hours a day whether I want to or not".
He also used to say "If you go to the bank for a loan and you say you are
'self-employed' they hear 'un-employed'"

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mynameishere
I remember a story about a business owner (in India I think) whose employees
could get loans but he could not. They were employed after all.

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DrJokepu
Surely he could have just get himself employed as a director of the company?

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sushrutbidwai
Been one of those entrepreneurs - Being employed as a director is not seen has
employment. My employee just got loan of 2.2 million rupees to buy a vehicle
(depreciating asset)and banks are not clearing my loan of 2million to buy a
house (asset) when I am paying other 2million. True story.

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jasonkester
I never got the memo that said I was supposed to work 100hr weeks while self-
employed. I don't think I've ever worked more than 40 on any of my startups,
and often ramp down to something like zero hours per week for months at a
time. Thus far I haven't seen any ill effects.

It's all about building things that bring in income, and fortunately for us
software types, value is often completely disconnected from the amount of work
it takes to build something. So sure, you can spend 100 hour weeks for years
on end building something huge and low margin, or you can spend 20 hour weeks
for a few months building something small and high margin.

Getting to make that choice is the nice thing about being self-employed.

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arn
_That might be why in this week’s survey, two-thirds of self-employed people
said they’re living anything but the dream. A dream employer for them is not
their current status of self-employment._

Little data given, but this strikes me as one of those hard to measure things.
It's like how surveys show that children don't make people "happier" and yet
you'll be hard pressed to find any parent that would give it up.

Similarly, these 2/3 of people self employed could get a traditional job....
but they don't. I guess it depends how the questions are worded. Could things
be better? Of course. Would you give it up? Well, presumably they could.

Relevant cartoon: <http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home>

Edit: also curious about how many people who do work in the companies in the
top list actually list their own companies. Grass is always greener sort of
effect. What percentage of Google employees consider Google their "dream job"?

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maxawaytoolong
_Himilarly, these 2/3 of people self employed could get a traditional job....
but they don't._

This isn't necessarily true. The hacker news world of prep school kids that
turn down $200K/yr junior investment banking jobs to work on their Facebook
gaming startups sort of warps this perspective. Many, if not most, self
employed people are self employed because they would never get hired at a
regular job. There was even a time when this was true in Silicon Valley.

~~~
philwelch
_The hacker news world of prep school kids that turn down $200K/yr junior
investment banking jobs to work on their Facebook gaming startups sort of
warps this perspective._

There's something that strikes me as odd about this statement; I didn't
realize we were all supposed to be prep school kids with the option of having
$200k/yr junior investment banking jobs.

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loewenskind
Well let's see:

Work steadily for 40+ years with no hope of ever "striking it rich", getting
bought out or anything else. Just grind away with (hopefully!) gradual
increases every few years.

vs.

Work much more than is reasonable for less than you can afford but if you're
lucky and good the sky isn't even the limit.

Self employment may not _be_ the dream but in my mind it's the option that can
at least _become_ the dream. I don't see putting in 45 a week until I'm too
old to do it anymore, trying to make someone else' dream come true ever being
that and I'd be _extremely_ depressed if it were.

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Ixiaus
Self-employment _is_ the dream because there are no _ceilings_ to your growth.
People have this notion of self-employment being a wonderland of hammock
reading and money easily flowing in. It can be those things but it's about
loving what you are doing and not trying to get free from what you are doing.

When you love what you do, a 70 hour work week is nothing - you feel
purposeful and valuable. You did it because you have a dedication to a dream
or a vision. One that is _yours_ and not someone else's.

~~~
jfi
Agree, I was working 60 hr weeks and earning a nice investment banking salary.
I now work every waking hour and earn maybe 1/8th as much. We have to fight
for every bit of progress that we make, but I love (almost) every second of
it. All types of employment have their trade offs; you have to figure out what
you are comfortable with and go with it.

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8ig8
Someone once told me the two most overrated things in life are owning your own
business and natural child birth.

As a dude, I cannot answer for the latter, but as a business owner oftentimes
I would agree with the former.

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dan00
We always miss what we don't have and never see what we already have.

