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Go all in! Yes, you. 🙃

Hi, whomever you are, this message is for you. Maybe you're working a 9-5 with a corporate tie; perhaps you're remote or freelance, but still itching to roll your own project, make your own life. Here's the deal: you can and should do it!

There's never been a greater time to be alive than right now, warts and all. I think there is a moment in everyone's journey where what we are passionate about and really good at lines up with being able to generate revenue from those passions and talents. Life is always more important than work, but if you are pursuing what you love, it really isn't work...it really isn't a choice, is it? If you are spending time pursuing ideas, goals, etc. that you don't love, well, beyond getting some practice, you really aren't making good use of your time. Time is finite. It will run out and it is a more precious commodity than money ever will be. Your time is worth something and when you multiply it by the value that you bring to the table, the horizon expands exponentially!

Surround yourself with encouragement and support. If it's just IH, that's better than nothing at all. Take stock of what matters to you. What really matters to you. That's the fire inside. Don't be scared of failure....you're going to fail. You have to fail and then, to paraphrase, "fail better". Is the path uncertain? Sure, it is. Here's a tip: every path is uncertain. Don't be afraid of uncertainty; use it to your advantage. Leverage the lack of fear bolstered by your self-confidence to forge your own path in this life, whether it's business or personal.

Go all in. 👍

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    I'm going to be the party pooper here but I saw this on Twitter and panicked a bit.

    I'm all in, but I have a huge cushion under me, and even like that it's tough. If you have a family to support, if you have loved ones you care about, please think carefully about things.

    Having a 9-5 job you aren't passionate about isn't great, but you won't have to think about it outside of these hours. Getting on the startup trail will absolutely suck all the time it can find, and you'll need to be very disciplined to carve out time for other things.

    I'm really happy building our company, and I would not want to do anything else. But I also have had some serious talks with my partners, I work from home to spend as much time as possible with my kids, and I don't see my friends as much as I'd do if I had a job.

    Life is always more important than work, but if you are pursuing what you love, it really isn't work...

    From my experience, if you are pursuing what you love, then it's still work — you're just enjoying it way more).

    So, go all in, but only after you know that (a) you got something good and (b) you've considered how it will change life for you and the people around you.

    1. 2

      I'm in a similar situation; it's difficult to break the 'must have a job' mindset for me after so many years. But jobs are not as good as they used to be, so it's time to find something better.

    2. 1

      This is something that I always think.

      You can read so much about young people creating something or building huge audiences, because they have a lot more time to spend on these things. If you have a family and kids, work on a 9-5 job that you just can’t quit, it’s not easy and you can’t compete with the younger ones.

      To me personally, time with my wife and kid is more important than working on a side project. That’s the reason why I don’t do anything for weeks. If I would work on my project every free minute I have, can you imagine how much I would miss from the life of my son? Or how much I would miss from the pregnancy of my wife (we’re awaiting our second kid)?

      Even though a successful project could bring financial freedom anytime in the future, you can’t get back the time you would miss with your family.

      1. 3

        @Yasin You make some valid points.

        Yes, I have had to spend time away from my family while building my business. But working from home has helped me give more to my family than I ever thought possible.

        Please don't assume everyone on here is 'younger'. I'm approaching the half-century mark and am raising 2 kids on my own -- all while building my business from my home office.

        Yes, I've had to make sacrifices to build this business but when my youngest got sick this year and can only do half days of school for the entire school year, I've been right here at home helping her out all while growing my business.

        Has her illness impacted my business? Yes. I haven't scaled as fast as I wanted but I'm helping her recover and the business is still growing.

        There will be times when you will have to decide between business and family. But you can place limits on how much one impacts the other.

        It's your decision how you want to run your business and your life.

        I'm grateful for how things have worked out.

        Business is growing and I have a kid well on her way to recovering.

        Win-win. 🙌

    3. 1

      @spittet It's ok that we aren't aligned, but I am curious, why were you panicked?

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        Because "go all-in" sounds like "quit what you're doing and pursue that project you have" and it's generally bad advice. I'm not completely sure if that's what you mean, but that's how the tweet read, and I can still infer that from the post.

        Here's my advice for people thinking about working full-time on their projects.

        1. Start by building some traction before you cut your revenue stream. The reality is that working for yourself can be fairly expensive. There's a podcast from the folks at Tettra that goes into the details of the validation problem (https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/077-andy-cook-of-tettra). I'd also recommend to listen to the Bluetick interview (https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/getting-a-brand-new-saas-business-off-the-ground-with-mike-taber-of-bluetick-3a2c3c009d)

        2. @yasin wrote something interesting above

        To me personally, time with my wife and kid is more important than working on a side project.

        A side-project, or full time venture will suck up a lot of your time. If you like to climb, surf, paint, play games, then you might not be able to do that as much once you go all-in. I've seen painful examples of it going wrong.

        Think about what it means for you to have a good life. You have a good point about time being important, but my conclusion would differ a bit. Time is important THEREFORE think about whether or not you want to go all-in on something, or if you can do some other stuff.

        Anyway, that's my 2cts. 9-5 and holidays are nice. You can go all-in, but only if that makes sense for you.

        (Note: this is a happy co-founder of a bootstrapped business telling you this. Not some grumpy burnt out dude. I just think reality ain't always pretty.)

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      This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

  2. 2

    Awesome reminder thank you!

  3. 2

    Thank you so much for this positive and refreshing post. Just what one needs to be picked up!

  4. 1

    While I like the message of your post, 'just start' people still need to know how to start not just why.

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