Launching a successful startup is hard. Becoming financially free is even harder.
But can't anything and everything be hard? Isn't hard/easy subjective? If everything is hard then nothing is hard.
It just is.
I think clocking in from 9-5 and being told what to do is hard. Never mind how many green pieces of paper I get for it. But we all need money as a survival tool. So where do we draw the line? How do we balance security, survivial, freedom, joy, work, and responsibility...
Each answer is our own. I want to build a successful business because I put it in my brain a long time ago that I could. There is nothing stopping me from doing it.
I want to prove myself, to myself and reap the benefits while I do it.
From my perspective, it is better than any and all alternatives I have regarding financial and life freedom/security etc...
The issue I want to get at with this poll and my other post is that of financial freedom. Is it truly hard, or only hard because of preset ideas of what it means/takes to be financially free?
It is interesting to see "freedom" widening its lead. There are a lot of business owners out there that will tell you "hah, freedom, that's a laugh". I would argue most traditionally successful businesses are run by owners who put in much more effort and work than anybody they employ. There is no such thing as paid sick days or standard hours.
This is not to discourage anyone from running their own business. Rather it is to highlight the case that "running your own business" != "freedom" neither from a temporal or a monetary sense.
Just as in everything else, it is HOW YOU GO ABOUT building and running your business that matters. There were a couple good articles regarding "having clear lifestyle goals" relative to any startup and measuring the success of your startup relative to those lifestyle goals.
So to answer your question - I don't think it can be answered. There is no absolute path to said goal. Hard is subjective, therefore scientifically meaningless.
Can't you be financially free if your expenses approach zero? It is possible for me to get lost in some national wildlife reserve and spend my life living off the land. Is that being free? What if you rake in millions of dollars at your startup but you MUST put in 14 hour days to keep it running? Is that being free?
Maybe what I am saying is we can't plan our lives in terms of end goals. Rather we must plan our lives in terms of what kind of journey we think best at any given time. And then simply ACT the way we wish to be. Do I want to be free? Well, maybe I should ACT free!
Our life IS the journey...
Or maybe I'm just losing my sanity...
Hmm, that does seem to be a strong vibe with the popular comments. Still, acting free, for me, means spending a lot of time thinking and programming on certain subjects that aren't really my job. Plus, I want to study a lot of stuff. So, acting free is only an offtime exercise for me.
Alternatively, I could go the zen route and say I want whatever it is that is currently happening to me...but it wouldn't be honest.
I think clocking in from 9-5 and being told what to do is hard. Never mind how many green pieces of paper I get for it. But we all need money as a survival tool. So where do we draw the line? How do we balance security, survivial, freedom, joy, work, and responsibility...
Each answer is our own. I want to build a successful business because I put it in my brain a long time ago that I could. There is nothing stopping me from doing it. I want to prove myself, to myself and reap the benefits while I do it.
From my perspective, it is better than any and all alternatives I have regarding financial and life freedom/security etc...