Sage advice from Aaron Hillegass regarding starting a company:
When you have Enough, the extra money means very little. I’ve been broke, and being broke sucks balls. Having Enough is awesome. How would I define “Enough”? Enough means that you can take a friend out to a nice lunch and not have to worry about how much it costs. I have hung out with a couple of billionaires — my experiences indicate that being a billionaire is just incrementally better than Enough.
Thus, as you look at your future, the question should not be, “How can I become a billionaire?” You should ask, “Where can I get Enough?”
Very few entrepreneurs have Enough; most of them eventually go get jobs.
(And don’t even talk to me about retiring early. There are few things sadder than a smart person who retires early and spends a few decades playing golf and waiting to die. If I am really lucky, I’ll push a clever chunk of code to Github in the morning and die at the dinner table that night.)
The quote from Hacker News that inspired Aaron’s post is the reason why I am comfortable where I am:
Ran out of money. Ran out of credit. Losing house in two months (already foreclosed). Wife pregnant. Three kids all under 6. Pretty sure I am the opposite of everyone here. I am no man. Just a statistic. Everything is gone. Selling spare parts to keep the lights on. It was a nice fantasy, HN. To the rest of you: fight hard and good luck.
When ever I feel like I have had enough of the bureaucracy, enough of working for “the man”. I think about the alternative.
The best part of creating a company is defining a culture. If you can find a company that has a culture you like and will pay you Enough to solve problems, go work for that company. Don’t start your own.
For right now, I can tolerate the culture and I get paid Enough. Thanks Aaron.
