How to make the leap from corporate hack to entrepreneur | Hacker News Reader

How to make the leap from corporate hack to entrepreneur

thestandard.com

15 pointsilamont5 comments

I was never able to get over the fear of not having a steady paycheck. Working at a corporate job is so darn easy that I have plenty of brain power to work on my entrepreneurial ideas after dinner through the night.

Of the start-ups that have approached me my biggest issue has always been that I did not believe in their idea. To really leave the corporate job you have to believe that the idea your working for will work. As the only breadwinner of my family I cannot risk their safety for just any project.

I'm in a similar breadwinner situation, but I'm not hanging on to the job for lack of an idea. I have tons of ideas, but I don't feel like I can commit the time required to make any of them succeed. 5-15 hours a week requires a dogged persistence over a long period of time. I might be able to focus on something for 6-12 months, but I think that working on something for several years with the slow progress that my time constraints would imply would drive me crazy.

I guess I'm still looking for the idea that drives me through the limitations.

For me, I think the biggest part of her article that rang true was the "Fear" point. Fear of losing security (especially with a family, mortgage, etc.). The idealism over realism argument, which is probably false in today's economy, but affects those who are natural born worriers nonetheless.

But, I could totally change my mind tomorrow.

The fear factor is certainly one thing holding me back. That any not having an idea that is good enough.

I have plenty of ideas all the time, but I don't think any are good enough to put all that work into. I have also found it is tough to think of ideas outside the field of IT - thats where there are all these potential problems to be solved, but as I have never worked there so I don't know about them!

"All I could think about was going back to my corporate job, where I did just about the same thing, day after day"

Many of us have had the same revelation: Is this the way I want to spend the one life that I have? Powerful incentive, indeed.

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