There definitely is something very relaxing about focusing on only one thing, but it only leads to long-term success if you've picked the right thing. I know entrepreneurs that worked for a decade on their companies, and then folded them up without ceremony because they'd poured their life into them and yet they were generating significantly less revenue than a day job would.
This is not sustainable no matter how much you love it. There is simply not enough time left to live healthy life - rest, exercise, be in a good relationship. Please do not do the same mistakes I made. I used to say what you say and I used to love my work. But I burned out. Love turned into hate. I had to quit - I just could not do it anymore. And I was left with severe depression, anxiety attacks, health problems and worst of all - loneliness. I did not have time for social life and now I have no love in my life, no sex, no intimacy, no meaning, nothing worth living for. I wasted few years of my youth that I will never get back and I just hope that somehow (with a lot of help from my therapist) I will be able to recover and enjoy life again... but it seems almost impossible now. I am in a really bad place right now... and I see you going there as well and loving it.
The good news for you is that your'e still breathing, so your opportunities to find love and fun exist. Be well...
Agreed, I went through the burn out too.
Got out of it by starting my work day with a 1 to 2 hour walk in the morning. It serves two purposes at once : first your body recovers gently from the hours spent sitting on a chair, second you go to sleep before midnight and can start over the next day.
mk
I often joke that I wouldn't be doing this if I were smarter. When people say "You have to be crazy to be an entrepreneur", they're not kidding. That said, there isn't anything else I'd rather be doing.
And actually, it stretches past being an entrepreneur. The technology and information we have access to now creates opportunities that simply did not exist just 10 years ago and geography is increasingly irrelevant.
Further side note: I'm a big fan of history. I think that there's essentially this rising worldwide class of freelancers-turned tech entrepreneurs involved in a variety of "lifestyle" businesses where lifestyle = $300k+ p/year in income. In the future, this whole sector will be a lot more crowded and it will be very normal for people to have a bunch of different side businesses involving the internet. But this really is a significant historical trend and an emerging new social class I think, and I'm sure there will be a lot of debate about whether it's good or bad for society as a whole just as it has been with the move from farms to factories.
Here's an idea for a HN developer. Setup a site where entrepreneurs can hangout and chat daily. This next point is going to sound crazy, but only have the site online for 1 hour (or maybe two 1 hour sessions) a day. This way, we're not distracted to check the site on a constant basis, but it's more of a 1 hr daily meeting, where you can jump in, network, chat about your project, what you're working on, technologies, etc. Associate everyone with their related app or business, so you'll see 'Michael Gnade (IndieGameStand.com)', etc.
The main downsides for me now are the feast or famine nature of working for one's self and isolation from teams of really smart people. I've found that this is mitigated by working on side projects that are close to my heart and move me from what life is to what life can be.
So on that note, I've stopped working nights and weekends so I can dabble in those projects and spend time with friends/family. The other thing that has helped immensely is delaying most to-dos and requests until the next day. So I usually handle the previous day's email the next morning unless it's an emergency.
Also I've moved my attention up to gigs that pay at least my overtime rate. A professional in Idaho should be making at least $40k per year to meet expenses which means I charge at least $30 per hour. I'm also realizing that the real money is made by taking gigs for more than this and hiring others for their overtime rate, because I probably need to multiply my efforts by however much is needed to start a family or contribute to my parents' care in retirement. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the added responsibility though. If someone has any thoughts/experience with that, or how they transitioned from freelancer to client, I'd love to hear it.
I think it's good to have a positive attitude, but I've been grinding for 8 years (the filling in my cookie sandwich is getting pretty thick) and maintaining a constant positive perspective is an impossibility.
I also don't use Facebook, Twitter, or anything else along those lines... if you want to reach me, you can email me, and I'll respond when I check email once every few days, or if you're one of the very few people who has access to my phone, you can call or text me and we can chat or grab dinner. No cyberstalking or hours lost to staring at social media inanity wondering why I'm not a part of all the pretend-excitement people portray themselves as engaging in for me. Wonder if this vicarious living through people's puffed up social lives on social media isn't a big part of why the author feels so left out.