I left a 6 figure engineering job to build my own startup with my wife. For the past 5 years, we spent 2/3rds of our savings on it and almost didn’t take vacation. This year we finally reached ramen profitability.
When I look at where we would be if I had kept the job, we would be homeowners, be able to buy new clothes regularly, go to restaurants and take awesome vacations a few times a year.
But the missing thing would be autonomy. The reason why I’m willing to sacrifice so much is because i fundamentally don’t like having to follow orders from a boss or manager. I’m arrogant enough to think i know better, and want to prove it by actually building my own thing.
Regardless of how silly it sounds on a financial level, the calculation makes sense once we look at the sense of ownership and autonomy over our own work. It’s worth more to me than any money I could make.
Ps: if you’re curious, the startup is logology.co
When I look at where we would be if I had kept the job, we would be homeowners, be able to buy new clothes regularly, go to restaurants and take awesome vacations a few times a year.
But the missing thing would be autonomy. The reason why I’m willing to sacrifice so much is because i fundamentally don’t like having to follow orders from a boss or manager. I’m arrogant enough to think i know better, and want to prove it by actually building my own thing.
Regardless of how silly it sounds on a financial level, the calculation makes sense once we look at the sense of ownership and autonomy over our own work. It’s worth more to me than any money I could make.
Ps: if you’re curious, the startup is logology.co