
Why you need your own company - hholen
http://sivers.org/laboratory
======
untog
When he says "company", he means "project". Trying out new ideas is actually
_easier_ with a project because you don't have any company overheads.
Innovate. Go crazy. See what sticks.

As someone that is prevented from working for my own company by restrictive US
visa nonsense, I'm glad I can at least play around with side projects.

~~~
branola
I agree that the post is mistitled and should be called _Why you need side
projects_. The two quotes at the end of the piece support this:

“If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing
a symphony, educating his son, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi
Desert.” - Australian psychiatrist W. Béran Wolfe

“Find a happy person, and you will find a project.” - Sonja Lyubomirsky

~~~
AsylumWarden
I haven't read the article yet, going there next, but I really like that last
quote:

'“Find a happy person, and you will find a project.” - Sonja Lyubomirsky'

I think of people who often try to make an unhappy person their pet project.
It would be an interesting twist to do the reverse. As a life-long pessimist I
have made many happy people feel sad. Were these my projects?

~~~
lgas
Pessimists are people that default to expecting the worst outcome. I know
happy pessimists and unhappy pessimists. People who have left a trail of many
happy people feeling sad behind them are called assholes.

------
dholowiski
Sure, it's easy to be successful when you've been successfull and there is no
problem using your company as your own virtual playground, when it's your
second (or third) company. For the rest of us we just have to work our ass
off.

~~~
redox
Agreed, he has already achieved financial freedom so it is a lot easier to
experiment with throw away companies and projects. Others have to find that
balance between working on fun activities and those that earn you income.

------
rodolphoarruda
"I could not have been more relaxed. My head was empty."

And pockets were full! That's the main factor I'd say.

~~~
44Aman
<http://sivers.org/trust> \- Well, not entirely.

------
sid6376
A good motivational post and it works when you apply it at a personal level.
However when you have employees and they are constantly jumping from one of
your experiments to another, without your project achieving much traction
among users, it can become horribly demotivating.

------
duck
If you like reading classics like this one (which is from 2009), you might
want to check out my side project that features these each day:
<http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/daily/06-10-2012.html>

~~~
sid6376
Hey really good work. I have been enjoying your newsletter since Wednesday.
More time down the drain but its still good. Do you personally curate the
articles or is it automated? edit: forgot to say thanks!

~~~
duck
This one is semi-automated. I used the HNsearch API to populate each section,
but have to do some manual fixes for broken/bad links. My other project,
Hacker Newsletter, is curated by hand each week.

------
tjr
Any reason why a "company" would be more needful than a "project"?

~~~
espinchi
In the context of this article, I think you can safely exchange those two
words. I'd even say you can exchange _company_ by _side-project_ and the
advice is still solid.

------
StavrosK
This post conveniently assumes that "company" means "wildly successful
company".

~~~
gyardley
I didn't get that impression at all. After all, Derek wrote this post in 2009,
and if you follow the links, the company he rushed back from the hot springs
to found seems to have gone nowhere.

All he's really saying is 'you need to be executing on your ideas to be happy,
not just thinking about them.' Which is true for a lot of people, myself
included.

~~~
StavrosK
> All he's really saying is 'you need to be executing on your ideas to be
> happy, not just thinking about them.' Which is true for a lot of people,
> myself included.

Oh, sure, I don't doubt that's true for many people, it's true for me as well.
However, in order to easily test various things, you need to have a lot of
people/datapoints to work with.

It's amazing if you have a product that many people want to use and resources
with which to bring your ideas to life, but most people who own companies are
probably too busy getting those companies to profitability (or improving it)
to try any big ideas.

It seems to me that the author had the liberty and ability to try new things a
lot (look at the experiments he lists), which requires a good team, an
audience to test your idea with, etc...

~~~
randomdata
_However, in order to easily test various things, you need to have a lot of
people/datapoints to work with._

I don't know, I've built lots of things that look amazing in my head, but
appear far less amazing once I've actually implemented it. While I am just a
single data point, the process can provide enough information to realize that
it was a bad idea.

I will agree that having more data points has its place, but building it just
for yourself is often worth it.

------
acoyfellow
Awesome read, I'd love to see an update on his projects (since this was from
2009)

~~~
gatsby
His holding company's website gives updates of what he's working on
(<http://nownownow.com/>). In addition, he released a book last summer called
'Anything You Want' (<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936719118?tag=cdbaby>).

------
bcbrown
I found this to be very true for me, in a different context. Last spring I
quit my job to take a six month road trip visiting as many national parks as I
could. It had been a dream of mine for several years, and I loved it.

What I found, though, was that I no longer had any goals I was working
towards. I was living my dream, and loving it, but without something to plan
for and strive towards, my imagination and planning abilities became detached
from my surroundings, and my daydreams and long-term goals became more and
more baroque, until I had an entire dream-universe in my head. It made me
realize that humananity, or at least I, need to have something they're working
towards, a goal of some sort.

------
mark_l_watson
I saved this article and plan on re-reading it a few times.

I have kicked around for years the idea of having a small company with
multiple projects. What is holding me back is not money (I have enough passive
income) but that I have a difficult time letting go of my consulting business.
I generally only work for very good tech'ies and I constantly get exposed to
new ideas and technologies while working. Since my wife and I live in a remote
area (Sedona Arizona - small town in the mountains) I rely on interactions
with tech-saavy customers.

I'll probably keep doing what I do now (consulting 2/3 of my time and spend
1/3 of my time on side projects that don't have to succeed in making money).

------
alinajaf
Personally I've found that having my company gives me something to pin all of
my personal projects, freelance efforts and stuff that _belongs to me_ on.
Eventually this grew to the point where I was able to leave my full-time job,
and I'm not sure that would have happened if I hadn't gone through the motions
of registering a company.

------
capdiz
Am jobless, am broke and i want to start my own company. Am currently working
on my web app that i really hope will turn out to be my first company. Keep
you posted

~~~
dkokelley
This may go against the common current on HN, but if you're jobless and broke,
you might not be in the best place to start a company, especially considering
that often times companies aren't profitable in their first year. Do you have
any resources to pull from? Family? Friends? Do you have a place to stay? Can
you survive for a year not drawing a salary? If you're jobless, broke, and 17
living with your parents then you have a huge resource to draw on to make this
happen.

My advice (for what little it may be worth) is that you find a job related to
what you want to do. Learn all you can, live frugally, and store up as much
cash as possible. Do this until you have enough in savings to live modestly
while you get your company to the point where it will support you (I.E. Ramen
profitable).

~~~
capdiz
Am 26 and just moved back home where i hope to make this happen. Do i have
resources to pull from? Not really and to be frank with you i don't know what
to expect. About getting a job? My fear is i might get comfortable at it and
just give up on my dream. Thanks though

------
gsibble
I think if any of my investors heard of my company as a "playground" they
would rip my throat out.

------
einhverfr
To live is to work. To create. To make things. Without work the spirit dies.

------
greghinch
Sounds like one of those "idea guys" who thinks everything they think of is
brilliant, but doesn't have the talent, discipline, and skill it takes to
create anything. People like that get on my nerves. Learn a skill other than
sales.

~~~
oscardelben
He's certainly _not_ an idea guy, he's the founder of cd baby if you know what
it is <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_Baby>

