Have some experience with this ... using burner to be 100% honest and say things that I normally don't get to say to anyone else.
I left very good paying job in 2008 ($400-$500k+) right after my first child was born to pursue startup life. To be honest, I had a romanticized notion of startups before going into it. In my defense, I was working at a very successful company that itself had been a runaway hit startup, and it sure looked easy while I was there. I never really thought about how many startups fail, never thought of how quickly you can burn through your savings with no income, and never really thought about the impacts on my family.
15 years later and multiple not-so-successful startups later I'm still grinding it out. Making enough that I can scratch out a living but still making a lot less than if I had stayed employed. Yes, each startup up that I've done has provided me with a lottery ticket with big upside potential, but no home runs yet. I do have a very interesting public profile that people like and respect, so I guess that's a cool kind of non-monetary currency. Current business I'm working now could be decent sized over time as a regular old business, but we shall see.
I will say that every day I'm wracked with guilt regarding whether I made the right decision to pursue the path that I'm on. I wonder whether I've harmed my wife and children and provided them with a less than stable future. I am saddened as a man that I not the provider that I want to be and I feel shame in the sense that I'm not providing as well as others do. I hate worrying about money and I hate thinking about what could have been if I stayed employed. These feelings have complicated my marriage, and while my wife still supports me, I often hear the disappointment in her voice when we talk about our finances.
My recommendation would be to do a start up only if "you can" or "you must". "You can" means that you have a lot of wealth laid up already, or you have a spouse who can carry the income burden alone and doesn't mind doing so. "You must" means you have no other options and you can't find another job or you're simply unemployable for some reason.
A boring, stable life is greatly under-appreciated and I think our society fetishes entrepreneurs to a fault.
I left very good paying job in 2008 ($400-$500k+) right after my first child was born to pursue startup life. To be honest, I had a romanticized notion of startups before going into it. In my defense, I was working at a very successful company that itself had been a runaway hit startup, and it sure looked easy while I was there. I never really thought about how many startups fail, never thought of how quickly you can burn through your savings with no income, and never really thought about the impacts on my family.
15 years later and multiple not-so-successful startups later I'm still grinding it out. Making enough that I can scratch out a living but still making a lot less than if I had stayed employed. Yes, each startup up that I've done has provided me with a lottery ticket with big upside potential, but no home runs yet. I do have a very interesting public profile that people like and respect, so I guess that's a cool kind of non-monetary currency. Current business I'm working now could be decent sized over time as a regular old business, but we shall see.
I will say that every day I'm wracked with guilt regarding whether I made the right decision to pursue the path that I'm on. I wonder whether I've harmed my wife and children and provided them with a less than stable future. I am saddened as a man that I not the provider that I want to be and I feel shame in the sense that I'm not providing as well as others do. I hate worrying about money and I hate thinking about what could have been if I stayed employed. These feelings have complicated my marriage, and while my wife still supports me, I often hear the disappointment in her voice when we talk about our finances.
My recommendation would be to do a start up only if "you can" or "you must". "You can" means that you have a lot of wealth laid up already, or you have a spouse who can carry the income burden alone and doesn't mind doing so. "You must" means you have no other options and you can't find another job or you're simply unemployable for some reason.
A boring, stable life is greatly under-appreciated and I think our society fetishes entrepreneurs to a fault.