
I'm an idiot. I quit my dream job to become an entrepreneur... - wylonis
http://frombothsidesofthetable.com/post/68769162899/im-an-idiot
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marknutter
> Ok, so I work 80 hours per week - it just doesn’t feel like it. Working 80
> hours per week only sucks if you’re working on something you aren’t
> passionate about. Trust me, I’ve tried that.

This isn't sustainable. It's likely not healthy, either. It doesn't matter how
fun you're having while you work 80 hours per week, it's not good for you.
Most successful businesses grind away for years before they finally become
profitable. The rocket-ship success stories like Whatsapp and Instagram are
the exception to that rule. The whole mentality that you need to work yourself
to the bone in the name of "passion" to build a successful business is
poisonous. Even if you happen to be one of these super humans that can sustain
that amount of work more than a year it's likely that your co-workers are not.
It's also likely that they will not complain about it because they don't want
to seem like the weak link. All the while, though, it will do damage to them
and to the company in the long term.

Maybe working 80 hours a week is a sign that you're over-engineering.
Simplify, focus, and work less. The product will likely become more focused,
less bloated, and have a much better chance of surviving over the long haul.

~~~
genericuser
My take away was that when your work is the same thing you would personally
want to do with your free time (something you are passionate about) that doing
80 hours of work for your employer isn't really any different than 30 hours of
work and 50 hours of leisure time.

80 hours still leaves over half his time for eating, sleeping, the small
amounts of physical activity which are realistic, and small amounts of human
interaction. It simply does not leave time for leisure or to unwind, but as I
said previously if your work is what you would do with your leisure time then
that's not an issue, as there is nothing to unwind from.

Now I have only encountered this situation for a brief 3 month project which I
wish had never been finished. But this type of dream job type situation does
exist, and I don not believe is unhealthy, unless you have some sort of family
to maintain also (it doesn't really leave enough time for a healthy family
life).

~~~
rorykoehler
I have to agree that work is work regardless of whether one likes it or not.
Work and leisure are essential. Personally I work in sprints where I work like
crazy and then make sure to take time off to recover. I also use recovery time
for reflection, both structured and unstructured. I would class the structured
reflection as work but naturally my mind processes automatically in down time
also when I'm out riding my bike or whatever. This is where all the best ideas
and plans come from.

Take the analogy of an athlete. Any athlete knows that recovery is an
important part of training. Too much work and they over train. This can be
applied to any area of life but is usually called burn out in business. Burn
out happens regardless of how much one enjoys the work.

~~~
genericuser
Now what if riding your bike, structured and unstructured reflection, and
everything you do in your free time were also part of your job?

And with the example of the athlete a portion of their job is to have down
time, and not be out doing strenuous physical activities the night before the
big game.

When I encountered the situation where my leisure became my job, I simply
didn't have anything I wanted to do to fill the free time anymore. Sure I
could of done push ups or gone on dates or something else which I personally
hate doing, but making myself miserable in my free time isn't my idea of
healthy.

~~~
rorykoehler
If taking a holiday is part of a job then everything is work. It's not. Burn
out happens to the best of us when we deny the need for variety and rhythm in
our lives.

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not_paul_graham
I mistook this site to be that of Mark Suster [0] at first glance. Pretty
similar domain names. Just fyi for others.

[0] [http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/](http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/)

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segmondy
The human mind has an amazing way of copping, there are few stupid things that
I've ever done that my mind never found a way to rationalize and justify. From
the simple things just as eating that extra cookie or not working out to
extremely important things like deciding if college is good or career
decisions. If we couldn't justify it and cope, we do lose our mind.

I don't have my dream job, and I'm not about to quit it to be an entrepreneur.
If I had my dream job, I wouldn't quit it either. I need more to be an
entrepreneur, and I'm not there yet.

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qwerta
... probably yes, ask that question again in 10 years.

I bootstrapped because I had to stay at home with new born baby. I took my
open-source hobby project and turned it into business. Work load, working
hours, and money are similar to my previous job. I only miss my old
colleagues.

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ebbv
The only part of this article I agree with is the title.

> If you’re in doubt then you probably aren’t made out to be an entrepreneur
> anyway.

This kind of attitude is so childish and stupid it's hard to put into words.

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robogrowth
your project sounds incredibly smart, congrats and good luck! For someone like
myself who is very tall, but somewhat small in the waste for my height I have
a hard time finding clothes. 36/34 jeans are near impossible. I'll give it a
shot once you launch!

~~~
testermark
hmm... I'm normally 34/36 (w/l), they are usually on stock and my size hasn't
changed in the last ~20y. But actually I like 34/37 more with some shoes. The
34/38 jeans were rather hard to find, and then I had them custom shortened a
bit.

Now someone make more tall ladies please... ;-)

~~~
wylonis
It's really odd - seems like this post was taken down for 30 minutes and re-
posted when i had dropped? I've only been on here for 2 weeks - is that
normal?

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pskittle
Would you do it again, rather what would you do differently.

~~~
wylonis
I would do it over and over again. I'll tell you why - building a business
from the bottom with a group of guys just creates the most amazing comradery
and although we have had a LOT of tough all-nighters and too many Roman
noodles, we have grown the business together.

~~~
acangiano
I think you mean Ramen. Roman noodles is just pasta you eat by the Tiber. :)

~~~
stronglikedan
Maybe he imported noodles from Rome? ...these fancy entrepreneurs and their
start-up monies.

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a8da6b0c91d
I remember reading many years ago about some retailer initiatives from the
likes of LL Bean to offer in store body scans. Then you could order online
with confidence that what you were ordering fit on your 3D wireframe. I guess
that never panned out. It would be great.

