Dilemma
So I have been promising for awhile that I would talk more about the company I’m starting, and I’m sort of going to do that today, but mostly I’m going to talk about the difficulty of the transition. Not sure if it will be interesting or not, but you know that saying about getting what you pay for? Exactly…
So I had pretty much made my decision to leave the day job and cast my fortune in with this new company back in April. I think it’s safe to say that for the majority of people once you’ve made a decision to follow course Y in preference to course X, it’s really difficult to wait. You want to set forth in the new direction immediately. I am definitely in the majority in this respect in fact, in the past I would have found it nearly impossible not to immediately make the switch, but a tiny bit of maturity, coupled with a huge responsibility to my family kept me at the day job, but man it was difficult…
It’s more than just the desire to immediately set forth on this exciting new path. All of the bad things about the current situation are still bad, in fact they may even worse now that you have some concrete alternative to compare them to. And all the good things are no longer good, because you’re about to have to give them up. They may in fact be negative (you should have seen the crisis that was caused when the day job added a nice new benefit.) If that was all there was to it I’m sure I could have hung on indefinitely. But there was more…
Obviously one big thing was working two jobs. One can only work 12-14 hour days for so long, plus I think for myself it’s always been easier to work long hours when I could focus on a single project rather than splitting the day between two focuses and tossing a commute in the middle (I’m always amazed how long it takes me to get my mojo back when I switch from one work environment to another.) The other big thing is that having decided which horse is the winner you want to put as much money as possible on it. Which in practice means that every hour your working at the day job is a day you’re not building the company.
All of this taken together led me to the conclusion (which I think I already mentioned) that the sooner I told my bosses I was quitting the longer I would actually end up working at the day job. It’s still entirely possible that I played my hand too soon, though overall they’ve been very understanding in terms of flexibility and reducing hours, and it appears that I’ll be able to work the day job, at least part time, as long as I need to (benefits are a big deal).
Crossing the chasm, and I dropped my balancing pole
So I had pretty much made my decision to leave the day job and cast my fortune in with this new company back in April. I think it’s safe to say that for the majority of people once you’ve made a decision to follow course Y in preference to course X, it’s really difficult to wait. You want to set forth in the new direction immediately. I am definitely in the majority in this respect in fact, in the past I would have found it nearly impossible not to immediately make the switch, but a tiny bit of maturity, coupled with a huge responsibility to my family kept me at the day job, but man it was difficult…
It’s more than just the desire to immediately set forth on this exciting new path. All of the bad things about the current situation are still bad, in fact they may even worse now that you have some concrete alternative to compare them to. And all the good things are no longer good, because you’re about to have to give them up. They may in fact be negative (you should have seen the crisis that was caused when the day job added a nice new benefit.) If that was all there was to it I’m sure I could have hung on indefinitely. But there was more…
Obviously one big thing was working two jobs. One can only work 12-14 hour days for so long, plus I think for myself it’s always been easier to work long hours when I could focus on a single project rather than splitting the day between two focuses and tossing a commute in the middle (I’m always amazed how long it takes me to get my mojo back when I switch from one work environment to another.) The other big thing is that having decided which horse is the winner you want to put as much money as possible on it. Which in practice means that every hour your working at the day job is a day you’re not building the company.
All of this taken together led me to the conclusion (which I think I already mentioned) that the sooner I told my bosses I was quitting the longer I would actually end up working at the day job. It’s still entirely possible that I played my hand too soon, though overall they’ve been very understanding in terms of flexibility and reducing hours, and it appears that I’ll be able to work the day job, at least part time, as long as I need to (benefits are a big deal).
Crossing the chasm, and I dropped my balancing pole
posted by DireKobold at 3:53 PM
5 Comments:
Rough start this time around. You are in mild violation of the Internet Appreciation Ethic by insinuating that potential reader's time and attention is free and thus worth zilch. While I personally don't rate much beyond free, I'm sure your family's valuable time and attention should be treated weightily. ;-D
You were most considerate in announcing your plans in a timely manner. And as no good act goes unpunished be prepared to be exploited to to the maximum effect.
I've often heard it said that when you run your own show you are considered successful - at the beginning - if you have Cash flow, Business or Quality Family Time, and you'll never get more than one at a time before you break through. I think this is a core justification for the inclusion of levels in RPG design.
When I was a kid, and my dad would say "No good deed goes unpunished." I thought he was being sarcastic, commenting, as it were on the occasional good deed that got you in trouble. Now that I'm older I recognize it as not a lament on the occasional but rather a nearly absolute observation on the way the world actually works...
So you're going to continue part time? How long will you do that?
Aozora: Nihongo wa, sukoshi dake.
@ ed: sore dake demo umai! :-D I am impressed.
@ ross: Does your father still say it? My father does on occasion. The concept still puzzles me greatly.
@ hallamigo: I didn't really have anything to say but I didn't want to leave you out. :-)
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