frustratedw2

> You should have no trouble joining Gigster, which is a way to do consulting without the very heavy lifting parts of running your own consulting shop. There, you will feel a lot more like being a decision-maker. Out of your vastly increased income, you take some money to bootstrap whatever you want, you could even just do a couple mini experiments and use the remaining money to funnel into savings/living.

Contracting is definitely something I've considered. If net pay were similar (or higher!), I'd definitely be interested. Would you mind if I asked you a bit more about what kind of contracting you do? If you wouldn't mind, contact me at "[email protected]".

This is a really good point. The moments I've most enjoyed in my tenure so far have been when I had to come through for a colleague and I was able to do it. My manager and coworkers are really awesome, and we usually all eat lunch together, but yeah, I could definitely make an effort to strengthen those bonds.

> If you are really passionate about building a company, you shouldn't give a shit about what your resume looks like or what people will think if you only worked at your current job for six months. That is just not something entrepreneurs should worry about, because you should always be 100% confident in your success, not worrying about what you'll do if you fail!

I like a lot of what you said, but with all due respect I don't think I'm your intended audience for this pep talk. Remember, I just finished up two years running my own bootstrapped startup that was making no money -- most people wouldn't consider me particularly risk adverse. :) My life situation is now such that I can't afford another extended break from the workforce for a while at least.

Also, I think the "you should always be 100% confident in your success" (which I've heard from other people as well) line of thinking is kinda BS. We know most startups fail. Even most startups by smart, dedicated and hard-working people fail. For the two years I was doing my own thing, I didn't spend much time on backup plans, but I did keep my door open to recruiters and friends who approached me with other opportunities. Not doing so would not have made my startup any more likely to succeed, and by doing so I ended up with a soft landing at a prestigious and high-paying job, if nothing else. I think it's much wiser to expect the best, but still prepare for the worst.

Thanks, this is good advice. My immediate manager is awesome and has given me lots of opportunities to work on this kind of strategic project, which I haven't taken advantage of. I guess I've been worried about setting high expectations that I'm not motivated enough to deliver. But if I got in the position where I had committed myself to something concrete, my motivation might rise to meet the challenge.

> Being in a mundane job and checking out at 5 has it's benefits - you have both the time and the energy to focus on the projects and people you actually care outside of work hours. You also don't have to worry about money.

I wouldn't describe my current work as mundane, for better or for worse. To be successful here long term I'd need to spend a greater percentage of my mental cycles on work than I've been able to muster so far. Not necessarily working long hours, but definitely have work projects be the thing my mind falls back to when I'm in the shower, if that makes sense.

I've thought about looking for a job as a line of business app developer in a mid-sized non-tech company. I'd probably make about half of what I do now, and everyone complains about how terrible the work conditions can be, but I'd have a lot more mental space to work on my own thing on the side. Biggest downside I see is the possibility that a position like that would have a long-term negative impact on my career. But in the current hiring environment not a huge concern.

> All that being said, some people need to be in charge. They need to be entrepreneurs.

I'm worried that this might be me. I try to imagine myself being happy even at a small startup with lots of autonomy, and I suspect that even in those circumstances I'd have a hard time feeling motivated to work hard to make somebody else rich. :(

Side project is an app to help people overcome addictions. I haven't released it publicly and am unsure if it will be monetizeable and/or of interest to a larger company. But yeah, if it gets any traction turning that into a job is my plan "A". Based on the outcome of my last startup though, I'm also interested in plan "B"s. :)