Can’t believe I forgot this earlier on.

I’d like to point out that there’s a really large middle ground between the very sexy and high risk startup ideas and teh 9 to 5 endentured servitude approach. To each his own, that’s just my take. Some folks can do the job thing, I’m really not in that group. I’m just not wired for the 9 to 5 every day thing. I need challenge, excitement creativity, possibility, etc.

For example – how about a blog that you can start writing daily on a subject you’re passionate about. You gain readers, share your passion, and monetize your traffic with advertisers that are interesting to your audience. Steve Pavlina makes around $10k/mo doing that that, and many others are making a few thousand a month. Not bad.

Here’s an excellent post by Steve Pavlina. Yeah, it’s contraversial and all that, but I think he’s right on the money.

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/

Have an awesome day!
Dan

One, other thing to consider, Graham wrote in a different essay that he asked managers at Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft if they would rather hire someone who tried a startup and failed or a person who worked a few years at large company. They all said they’d rather hire the startup person.

So even if you lose, you do get great experience. Who knows though, I have no personal experience in the matter.

Great writeup, thanks for bringing all that together so neatly. I think I came across Paul Graham’s paper a couple of years ago and remember it being quite good.

Having done “the startup thing” myself more than once, I definitely agree it’s definitely not for everyone. You can certainly “make it big” and make a lot of money, but you can also very easily lose big.

Fundamentally I think different people can have vastly different personalities. Jennifer and I for example enjnoy the rush, the excitement, the thrill of doing/making something cool and exciting like going all out with a new startup, a new project, etc… the risk isn’t a deterrant, but in part I guess it could be a motivator.

So for some it’s definitely a worthwhile endeavour.

On a down note – A trap many entrepreneus fall into is not letting go if your startup is going under… some years ago I held on to a failaing business and lost so much more than I would have if I’d cut my losses and moved on. It’s easy to get emotionally attached to “your baby”.

I think it’s important to remember that whatever you’re doing has to still be a good business proposition TODAY, not just a year ago when you started.

But on a positive note, I’ve had amazing fun and learned soooo much with the startups I’ve been involved in.

Also for us, it’s also not just about “the money”. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the luxuries and Freedom that come with it, but in addition to being financially rewarding, it’s so important to follow your passion whenever possible.

It’s hard to be successful doing something you don’t particularly like… but following your passion is an incredible experience.

Ok, that was more of a rant than i thought it would be. Oh well.

Have an awesome day!
Dan