

Why you need your own company - sivers
http://sivers.org/laboratory

======
icey
This is far and away the best description of the attraction to starting up for
me.

I don't want to retire young; I want to keep making things. I just want to do
them on my terms.

~~~
jamongkad
Ditto, though the article didn't offer much, it helped me articulate the
feeling I've been having when and if I get to that point.

------
pchristensen
More accurately, what you need is F You money so you can tinker with projects.
He started out describing his company as a nightmare, but now that he's loaded
he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to.

~~~
aditya
Sure, but he did start a company that he sold to get F You money so he does
have a point.

~~~
pchristensen
It's just not the one he made in this post.

------
aplusbi
The only thing this article made me want to do is visit that hot spring in
Japan.

~~~
noodle
i visited there for a day and it is just as glorious as it sounds.

------
bbuffone
He gained his "Freedom to create" via his own company and that made him happy,
but the "Freedom to create" isn't tied to having your own company. It can come
as an employee or intern of a fortune 500 company. Really all depends on the
cult around you.

~~~
staunch
This is just watering down the idea to the point where it's meaningless.

The degree of freedom is what's important. Not even the CEO of a fortune 500
company has the freedom that the _owner_ of a company has.

If you _must_ ask permission, or answer to someone else, then you don't have
the kind of freedom I want.

~~~
bbuffone
"If you have to ask permission, or answer to anyone, to make decisions about
what you do then you don't have freedom."

Completely disagree. Freedom isn't binary. Everyone has to answer to someone.

\- If you own your own company you are responsible for your employees and thus
limits what you can do. Probably why he was glad to sell it and get rid of the
company.

\- Create your own open source project, as soon as it is used by other they
will want additional feature and fixes.

\- Working with others to create something means that there will be trade-offs
on what everyone does.

"If you have to ask permission or answer to anyone then you don't have the
kind of freedom I want."

Not sure what kind of freedom you want, but unless you are living on an island
by yourself creating software that no one uses it seems your lying to yourself
if you think you have achieved.

~~~
hs
"Completely disagree. Freedom isn't binary. Everyone has to answer to
someone."

i have thousands of customers, if one of them misbehave, i just ignoore him. i
have couple of rude email/SMS that i don't bother replying.

but if you have only one boss(es) or a handful of customers, then that's very
risky.

so freedom also include not having to answer to someone and it's not as binary
as you want to make it sound theoritical

------
JabavuAdams
Why you need a project would be a more accurate title.

~~~
adamhowell
Agreed, experimentation does not a business make.

~~~
icey
When the business is your own, experimentation is not only easier, but also
much more meaningful.

~~~
adamhowell
Yes, when it's experimentation on your core idea. But when experimentation is
"playing w/ crowdsourcing", "a fully multilingual site" or "an experiment in
transparency" then -- until one of them gains traction -- they're more
projects than businesses.

------
alain94040
Nice article.

One of the benefits of this economic downturn is that all the get-rich-quick
folks who were starting web2.0 companies are now gone.

So now it's just us: people who fit the article's description for passion.

------
eterno
Spot on and beautifully put.

On a related note, it never made sense to me that some first time
entrepreneurs give it all up and become VC's.

------
gits_tokyo
"I hated having 85 employees. It had become a little hell. I needed to get
away and clear my mind."

My Advice: Start a business where you need no more than 2-3 people period
(outside of your other partners legal, and financial advisors).

85 employees _shivers_ NFW, you couldn't pay me enough. Classic ball and
chain.

------
knightinblue
is the favicon of this site lifted from that of <http://smashingmagazine.com/>
?

~~~
burke
Nope: different colour, font, and font-size -- and he didn't use a gradient.

EDIT: And even if it was, big deal. It's just an "S".

------
c00p3r
It looks like self-exhibition or self-promotion, like the famous writings of
mr. Spolsky.

Yeah, he is a successful man. So what?

------
erlanger
Not to mention that chicks dig it. The other way around, it's very sexy if a
girl runs her own business.

~~~
dimitar
A teacher recently told us during a lecture:

 _How many of you know the definition of the word "engineer"? An engineer is a
person who has found something more interesting than sex!_

~~~
antiform
In my opinion, the original quote by Aldous Huxley is more accurate:

"An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting
than sex." [<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley>]

~~~
dimitar
Thanks, Aldous Huxley is amazing.. I should read more from this author. I've
read "Brave New World", so I guess "Island" is next.

~~~
sivers
Yes! "Island" changed my life! That's the book that made me quit my job in
1992. Haven't had a job since. Read slowly and ponder.

