The biggest hurdle (for me, certainly) is having the guts to step off that treadmill and devote all your time to something 100%. Personally, I have a wife who supports me, and even then it's still hard. I have some colleagues in similar situations with unsupportive families, and they will likely never be able to make that leap, not because of finances, but because of emotional/familial situations.
Re:One Year After Quitting My Job
by petercooper on Sunday December 30, 2012 @06:27PM
(#4987542)
I appreciate this is brusque and comes from a privileged position, but if my family were "unsupportive" or at least unable to pretend, they wouldn't be my family for very long, alas.
If you've got bills to pay and kids to support, leaving a full time job to work on something with no income for several months is just not something most of them are going to be able to do. Even if they could potentially scrape by financially for a few months, there's no guarantee of any success, and the wives (3 different people I've known) have always said "no".
However, what I've noticed is that instead of "no, we can't do that now - let's try to work on a plan to set aside 8 months of savings to let you focus on your idea", it's been just "no, you're not doing that". But... are you going to divorce someone over that?
This is where true freedom comes from.
With a runway like that, one can afford both psychologically and literally to double down and crank out a lot more products or businesses to get oneself up to a 5 or 10 year runway (or even "financial independence" if one is very lucky).
I think the best thing to do once a little momentum is gained is to grab onto the pendulum and get it swinging big so one can travel, buy a house, and all those sorts of things in 3-5 years. (This is not a direct advice to you since it seems you are already thinking this way :-))