

If you quit, I'll still take you more seriously - jmtame
http://jmtame.posterous.com/if-you-quit-ill-still-take-you-more-seriously

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jrwoodruff
I would just like to note that quitting wasn't the first thing Patzer did
here.He worked the two jobs. When he realized Mint was something viable,
something he not just wanted to pursue but had to give 100% to, then he quit
the day job.

I read the 37signals article to mean just this. Had he gotten to this point
and realized Mint was an utter disaster, the idea wasn't viable, the
technology wasn't there or the team wasn't working out, he had a backup.

Quitting your job isn't the first thing you should do when considering a
startup. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but that's how I took it, and it just
seems to be practical advice.

~~~
run4yourlives
Exactly. The example actually supports 37Signals' stance rather than counter
it. I'm pretty sure even they would agree that it's foolish to continue
working at your job when you've got a lower risk way to move on to your start-
up.

The point they're making though is that until you reach that stage, don't
though caution to the wind if you don't have to.

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robryan
It depends on how you approach things, I would rate someone that works 14hours
a day/ 7 days a week in the same regard as a full time job and working 6hours
every night.

Devoting all you free time to something, be it with a full time job or not,
would get you taken equally as seriously.

On the other hand if someone quits their job and settles down into a 6 hour a
day routine they may not get taken as seriously.

~~~
jmtame
after thinking about it a bit more, and from my experience in yc this summer,
i cannot imagine how anyone could do a start up successfully part time. there
may be a few examples, but i don't know of many. i did it in school with my
cofounder, and i could feel the gpa's drop. surely your employer will notice
you slacking if you're trying to work too hard on a start up. even the ones
who do it full time seem to struggle.

if i had to guess, it probably feels a bit like raising money and programming
at the same time. maybe less painful because you can program for about 14
hours out of your day. but i really am a skeptic, and i'd say that having the
laser focus is one of the best things in a start up. our competition moves
pretty fast, we would probably not be standing where we are now if we did this
as a side project.

~~~
warp
I don't think spending your evenings on a startup is necessarily bad for your
employer.

Someone spending considerable amounts coding on his/her startup in the evening
still brings the knowledge and experience of doing that back to the full-time
job. At home you're working on projects you care about, you invest time in
learning about new technologies, you research best practices, etc..

That actually adds value for your employer compared to those employees who go
home to the wife and kids and don't spend any of their free time thinking
about code.

Ofcourse, you shouldn't overdo it and arrive at work a zombie, but that would
also have a negative effect on your startup work, so I don't expect people to
actually do that.

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anigbrowl
I think what you meant was 'if you quit, I'll take you still more seriously'.
The way it's written, you suggest you were planning to take me more seriously
anyway, and you'll still do if I quit :)

~~~
jmtame
i think 37signals was implying that you no longer deserve to be applauded for
quitting, because that's not difficult, according to them. i'm saying that i
still find it to be the opposite: it's a big step, and it shows that you're
determined to accomplish what you're going after.

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Psyonic
Also notice he had enough savings to live on for 7 months. This is important,
as he had enough time to avoid rushing for immediate profitability.

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Confusion
It's offtopic, but I _really_ dislike it when people don't start their
sentences with a capital. It makes the text harder to read: a period isn't
enough to easily distinguish ends and starts of sentences. I also, I
immediately associate you with other people that write in this way (or worse)
and believe me: that is not a good thing.

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thunk
No, no, no. It's: "If you quit, I'll take you more seriously than you could
possibly imagine."

