
Startup is not your job - eggspurt
http://igzebedze.com/2012/08/22/startup-is-not-your-job/
======
jasonkester
This is another article that makes a bunch of assumptions about its precise
definition of a "Startup", then defines those definitions, then restates them
as its conclusion.

But it doesn't mean you need to fit any of those definitions to be a Startup.
Except in the mind of the author.

I run a successful little software startup that has as its first and primary
goal: "Maximize Jason's vacation time". Every decision I make is made in that
context. So profitability is important, as is low customer support
requirements, as is technical simplicity (so I never have to cut a trip short
because something breaks).

From that standpoint, articles like this that make it sound like a startup
should consume your life and thoughts seem a bit silly. No it shouldn't. Not
unless you want it to.

That's the cool thing about running your own business. You get to run it any
way you please.

~~~
Juuumanji
Well said. I don't understand why people shy away from this mindset. There is
nothing wrong with running something successful and living a full life.

~~~
eggspurt
There's a difference between a "startup" and a "lifestyle business".

~~~
ayers
I would disagree with that, they are not mutually exclusive. Some people
create a "startup" to provide them with a "lifestyle business".

~~~
eggspurt
How about new lifestyle business referring to themselves as new lifestyle
businesses versus referring to themselves as startups? How should a startup
call itself not to be ambiguous?

------
entropyneur
I don't understand why the idea that you should try and gain a competitive
advantage by stretching yourself beyond limits is so popular in the startup
community. Not resting properly (be it vacation or daily sleep) hurts your
productivity and decision making ability badly. So overworking is simply not a
rational thing to do.

Starting a new business is not a sprint, but a marathon. And all this
romanticizing does a huge disservice to the people who buy the hype and end up
burned out.

~~~
mindcrime
_Starting a new business is not a sprint, but a marathon. And all this
romanticizing does a huge disservice to the people who buy the hype and end up
burned out._

Eh... I don't know. I mean, yeah, I totally agree with the sentiment that
"Starting a new business is not a sprint, but a marathon." But, even so, part
of the issue is the old saw that (paraphrased) says "an entrepreneur is
someone who sets out to change something about the world when he doesn't
control the resources necessary to do so."

If you buy that definition then doing a startup is trying to do the (nearly)
impossible. Given that, you look at the simply ridiculous amount of work in
front of you, and the resources you have available, and you don't have much
choice but to do as much as you can with the one resource you do control:
yourself.

I guess there is some romanticizing involved, but doing a startup is _hard_
and I don't see any way around that. It takes a lot out of you, and I believe
you do have to sacrifice a little (maybe a lot) at least in the early days,
until you get some traction and can start attracting more resources to your
initiative.

Maybe, if you're a natural born salesperson and can attract more resources
without traction, it's a different story. Or maybe I'm just one of the people
who has bought the marketing hype.

I probably watched _The Social Network_ one time too many. :-) Or maybe, in my
case, it's just because I'm getting older and feel like I'm running out of
time to do something big.

~~~
entropyneur
I completely agree that most startup founders are going to be making
sacrifices and using all the resources available. If you are expecting
anything to come out of your startup you better be really committed to it. I'm
against that school of thought on a totally different basis.

My issue with it is that it views starting a startup as a kind of gamble.
Every sleepless night, weekend at the office and skipped vacation is
absolutely guaranteed to come back and bite you in the ass after a certain
time. If you are into gambling, you might bet on "hitting a home run"
(whatever that means) before that happens. But you might as well try your
chances in Vegas. In reality behind every overnight success is skill and years
of dedicated work. And there's no way you are going to stay in overdrive for
years without wrecking yourself and your startup.

I'm speaking from personal experience btw. I used to subscribe to that
ideology and I still haven't fully recovered years later.

~~~
mindcrime
_But in reality behind every overnight success is skill and years of dedicated
work. And there's no way you are going to stay in overdrive for years without
wrecking yourself and your startup._

Yeah, you definitely can't sprint the entire marathon. I won't argue that. But
I think there are moments when you choose to sprint for a while, to achieve
certain goals. And even the non "flat out sprint" moments are a hard slog.

The thing that I don't do well, is allowing myself to take time off. I can't
escape the sense of feeling guilty when I do... if I go out to watch a movie
or go out drinking or whatever, I always find myself thinking "I could be
(writing code|doing market research|writing a whitepaper|etc.)" the whole
time. So I don't wind up taking much time off. Whether I'll look back on this
whole experience as being a net negative, or a net positive, remains TBD.

~~~
entropyneur
Actually I still feel the guilt when I take time off too, I just learned to do
it anyway :)

------
alexfoo
> You don’t need time off. If you think you do, you’re in a Job and should
> stop thinking it’s a startup, because it will fail.

Strongly disagree. Start-ups fail for lots of reasons; burn-out being one of
them.

Start-ups are just high risk/reward jobs without many of the guarantees or
safety nets that the traditional employer/employee relationship can provide.

If you don't have your work life balance sorted out, then something will fail;
be it your start-up, your relationships/marriage/family, or both.

If you get to the point of burn out and it's a choice of either burn-out
completely or - by taking a holiday - a failed start-up then you can't blame
the holiday, I'd be looking at the original idea and/or the execution.

------
edw519
Founder's Prayer (with apologizes to AA & the original author)

God, grant me the tolerance to accept the limitations of my MVP, strength and
determination to work on what must be worked on now, and wisdom to know the
difference.

------
JSadowski
Also, could we stop pretending that every startup founder is in it to "change
the world"?

~~~
igzebedze
startups make money by making people behave differently - paying them instead
of someone else. that's changing the world.

let's stop pretending there is more to it than that, because it's hard enough.

~~~
AznHisoka
I step on ants and consume bacteria everytime I eat. So I change the world as
well.

~~~
JacksonGariety
Great observation there. Wanna know a secret? You can demean and belittle
someone's argument just just by taking it out of context anywhere on in the
world, not JUST hacker news.

------
matthewlyle
_You don’t need time off. If you think you do, you’re in a Job and should stop
thinking it’s a startup, because it will fail._

Or you're a human being and you'll be just fine.

------
yesimahuman
Do yourself a favor: take time off and mean it. Who are you racing against?
Probably just yourself.

------
timonv
So I'm curious, what would you define a job? True, running a startup requires
you to make some concessions with your private time. But when you have what
you describe as a job, assuming there is no need to excel (i.e., prioritising,
pushing), seems a bit judging. Aiming to be good at what you do, doesn't that
hold for anything?

So with that argument turned around again on startups, if you need time off,
vacations, private me time or whatever to get better at what you do, you
should take it. Excessive stress does not make a better person, nor a better
life.

~~~
igzebedze
great question, thanks.

i call a 'job' something that has a stable job description, clear career path
and predictable roadmap. vacation becomes just another item on the calendar
then, which is perfectly fine.

you can and should still excel in those conditions, but the project won't be
jeopardized or stalled if you take time off. and when you come back, chances
are that the specs of your project didn't shift yet.

there is a surprising amount of people working in jobs, even in technology
sector, but they are not founders or employees of early stage companies.

and yes, if you feel like you need time off, you need time off. but planned
vacations in this environment I just don't see plausible. I've never been able
to even book a plane ticket more than a week in advance, because plans always
changed.

best, b

~~~
jasonkester
_I've never been able to even book a plane ticket more than a week in advance,
because plans always changed._

Fix that if you can.

From your comments on this thread, I get the sense that you've let your
business get out of control a bit. You think that it's all normal and part of
the deal because it's all you know. But lots of people here are trying to tell
you it's not.

If you can't mold the business you created yourself to fit the pattern you
want, that's a big red flag. Now, it's likely that the pattern you want
actually is to be occupied 24/7 and pour your whole life into your thing, in
which case you've succeeded.

But know that it doesn't need to be that way. It's entirely your choice.

------
lmm
Agreed except for holidays. If you don't have a clear sharp line between work
and life day-to-day, then you need those more than ever.

~~~
igzebedze
hey guys,

a) i'm not saying anyone should overwork themselves, you're seeing that in my
post. all i'm saying is that even when entrepreneur (or a type thereof) tries
to unplug, the brain still works on the same problems.

b) work-life balance is bullshit, doesn't work. you can't switch contexts like
that efficiently. if you try and think you'll be able to, no surprise you need
vacation as well.

c) i'm racing against wantrepreneurs who think they have a hard job building a
startup because they worry about paying for office space and other non-
essential things. as more cash is sent towards early-stage startups, I see
more of this behavior emerging.

best, b

~~~
verisimilidude
"work-life balance is bullshit, doesn't work. you can't switch contexts like
that efficiently"

Efficiency is the _anti-goal_ of a well-balanced life.

It's not efficient to drive four hours to Yosemite just to hike a new trail
with my wife. It's not efficient to spend all afternoon trying to cook my own
pizza instead of just ordering one for delivery. It's certainly not efficient
to spend years learning to speak a new language for no practical reason.

However inefficient, all these "life" activities enrich and contextualize your
work. There is nothing quite like a long hike to help you wrap your head
around a difficult algorithm, or bringing a team together over some bad
homemade pizza, or serendipitously running across a potential investor who
speaks your otherwise "useless" second language.

This is what work-life balance is all about. It's about investing in yourself
and, indirectly, your work. It's never efficient, but a lot of us find it
necessary and rewarding.

------
bmac27
This time crunch is exacerbated even further when you're trying to bootstrap.
8 hour day job (at least) + at least 3 or 4 hours nightly trying to hustle
your way through a product doesn't leave much time for sleep/breathing etc.
let alone relaxing your mind in any substantive way. Plus the guilt you feel
if you take a day off from the day job and don't spend that on what you're
working on.

I'm trying to figure out better ways to maximize my time and squeeze the
absolute most out of it, while maintaining some semblance of work/life
balance. But it's a struggle, there's no doubt. There's the momentary victory
of working out all of the scheduling but if you burn out, it's not worth much,
is it?

~~~
igzebedze
well... i'd say nothing is worth over-working yourself. i like my sleep very
much.

------
JacksonGariety
Depends how you define "job". If a job is defined as repetitive, non-engaging,
focused, simple work, then a startup is not a job. If define a job as
anything, no matter how board, critical, and requiring abstract though, then a
startup is a job.

In my opinion, a job is what you spend time doing to live your life. If you do
a startup so you can continue to live, that's your job.

