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I found these two posts on 4hourworkweek and news.ycombinator.com. This is just anecdotal evidence, but I think they illustrate well what can happen.
If you can slum it up effectively, you could do the entrepreneurial journey forever. Work a part time job, some freelance writing or craigslist hustling and you got your basic costs covered. You have the rest of your time to devote to your projects.
At what cost to your life though?
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a decent amount of people who started the entrepreneurial journey after college and at 30-35 are still not successful.
What if you're 35, and all your college friends are well into their corporate careers, have houses, are married, having children?
Your business consists of a couple of acai berry adword campaigns and some outsourced adult fiction ebooks that have a shelf life of 2 months.
But you tell yourself you're awesome because you're independent and free of the man.
That's what I told myself when I attempted this path. I had a part time job at UPS and tried making a living offf of AdSense. Something very bad happened to me about two years in. It ended up being good luck because it convinced me I needed to snap out of it and get a corporate job. I've lived very frugally since then , I'm buying rental properties and there's a good chance I'll be financially independent by the time I'm 30.
---
I first read 4HWW in 2007. I skeptically opened it in the book store and didn’t get up from my seat for 3 hours – read in one sitting. I had just resigned from a a soul-sucking entry level corporate sales position a few years out of undergrad, was thinking of going to law other grad school and doing some soul searching. Reading Tim’s experience with TrueSAN totally floored me. I was so excited after I read it, I felt unstoppable. Grad school wasn’t happening – I was going to make it happen on the internet marketing/entrepreneurial world. I dove full force into this ‘world’, devouring the works of everyone from Seth Godin, Dan Kennedy, Michael Gerber, all of the big names of marketing and entrepreneurship.
I’ve been continuously involved in real estate and internet marketing ventures since then. I’ve more marketing and business books and courses than all my friends put together. I cut out a lot of my social life in the process, even broke up with my girlfriend to give myself more time to focus on “making the dream happen”.
3.5 years later, I’m 28 but broker than my 23-24 year old roommates just coming out of college, who I am living with because it’s all I can afford. I wish I could pinpoint the thing I did wrong, the area I need to improve, but I can’t see the forest through the trees. I’m totally disillusioned. I wish I could say I learned something from the things I’ve tried, but I don’t think I did. Mainly I get a headache when I think of all the sacrifices I made and the lack of progress.
Also, my Dad was a freelance video producer and my parents were always flipping out about money because his business was so inconsistent and my mom was a teacher’s aide for the public schools. My Mom would whisper in my ear “make sure you get a safe secure job so you don’t end up like this”. Maybe that had more of an effect than I suspected, who knows. But it does weigh on my conscious increasingly now. How can I ever raise a family or be a partner in a relationship when I can barely take care of my own needs because I’m always crashing and burning with business?
Anyway, I don’t want this to be the story of my life. This is no way to live. I feel I need a total re-define my identity while I still can. I’m considering joining the US Military or even the French Foreign Legion. I’m still healthy and in good shape; this might be my last shot to make something of myself. Yes I will lose free will, but at least I’ll have camaraderie and do interesting things. Because let’s face it, so far my track record with free will hasn’t been all that great.
---
I've lived with a parent (it's a big house they'd alone otherwise here) for I guess too many years then I've should. Also I'm old and my g/f who is similar age of five years also lives with a parent. Though she is getting antsy and wants kids and she only has a few years left. I want a family too but have been holding off for that big moment when my team and I start generating money and or sell our work. Ugh will that happen I don't know but I need to get back into the workforce and do our startup on the side. This what I was doing for the last year and half until I lost yet another developer job because of my incessant need to startup. I've lost two jobs in the two and half years because my bosses found out about my startup or we become friendly and I talk about it a lot.
Ugh I'm sorta feeling stuck professionally and tomorrow I start my 3rd incubator yet im unemployed.
You might want to reconsider startup pursuits after your early to mid 30s.
If you can slum it up effectively, you could do the entrepreneurial journey forever. Work a part time job, some freelance writing or craigslist hustling and you got your basic costs covered. You have the rest of your time to devote to your projects.
At what cost to your life though?
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a decent amount of people who started the entrepreneurial journey after college and at 30-35 are still not successful.
What if you're 35, and all your college friends are well into their corporate careers, have houses, are married, having children?
Your business consists of a couple of acai berry adword campaigns and some outsourced adult fiction ebooks that have a shelf life of 2 months.
But you tell yourself you're awesome because you're independent and free of the man.
That's what I told myself when I attempted this path. I had a part time job at UPS and tried making a living offf of AdSense. Something very bad happened to me about two years in. It ended up being good luck because it convinced me I needed to snap out of it and get a corporate job. I've lived very frugally since then , I'm buying rental properties and there's a good chance I'll be financially independent by the time I'm 30.
---
I first read 4HWW in 2007. I skeptically opened it in the book store and didn’t get up from my seat for 3 hours – read in one sitting. I had just resigned from a a soul-sucking entry level corporate sales position a few years out of undergrad, was thinking of going to law other grad school and doing some soul searching. Reading Tim’s experience with TrueSAN totally floored me. I was so excited after I read it, I felt unstoppable. Grad school wasn’t happening – I was going to make it happen on the internet marketing/entrepreneurial world. I dove full force into this ‘world’, devouring the works of everyone from Seth Godin, Dan Kennedy, Michael Gerber, all of the big names of marketing and entrepreneurship.
I’ve been continuously involved in real estate and internet marketing ventures since then. I’ve more marketing and business books and courses than all my friends put together. I cut out a lot of my social life in the process, even broke up with my girlfriend to give myself more time to focus on “making the dream happen”.
3.5 years later, I’m 28 but broker than my 23-24 year old roommates just coming out of college, who I am living with because it’s all I can afford. I wish I could pinpoint the thing I did wrong, the area I need to improve, but I can’t see the forest through the trees. I’m totally disillusioned. I wish I could say I learned something from the things I’ve tried, but I don’t think I did. Mainly I get a headache when I think of all the sacrifices I made and the lack of progress.
Also, my Dad was a freelance video producer and my parents were always flipping out about money because his business was so inconsistent and my mom was a teacher’s aide for the public schools. My Mom would whisper in my ear “make sure you get a safe secure job so you don’t end up like this”. Maybe that had more of an effect than I suspected, who knows. But it does weigh on my conscious increasingly now. How can I ever raise a family or be a partner in a relationship when I can barely take care of my own needs because I’m always crashing and burning with business?
Anyway, I don’t want this to be the story of my life. This is no way to live. I feel I need a total re-define my identity while I still can. I’m considering joining the US Military or even the French Foreign Legion. I’m still healthy and in good shape; this might be my last shot to make something of myself. Yes I will lose free will, but at least I’ll have camaraderie and do interesting things. Because let’s face it, so far my track record with free will hasn’t been all that great.
---
I've lived with a parent (it's a big house they'd alone otherwise here) for I guess too many years then I've should. Also I'm old and my g/f who is similar age of five years also lives with a parent. Though she is getting antsy and wants kids and she only has a few years left. I want a family too but have been holding off for that big moment when my team and I start generating money and or sell our work. Ugh will that happen I don't know but I need to get back into the workforce and do our startup on the side. This what I was doing for the last year and half until I lost yet another developer job because of my incessant need to startup. I've lost two jobs in the two and half years because my bosses found out about my startup or we become friendly and I talk about it a lot.
Ugh I'm sorta feeling stuck professionally and tomorrow I start my 3rd incubator yet im unemployed.
You might want to reconsider startup pursuits after your early to mid 30s.
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