- Most hackers make pretty good money at 'real jobs'.
- Startups are definitely a risky proposition. As someone else commented, "A startup founder with a successful startup is already a rare exception.".
- So when you're in the thick of it, and there isn't a lot of money, and you don't know if it's going to go anywhere, that reality is going to wipe out any talk of "we might be rich", compared with the alternative of "making pretty good money and living comfortably".
The "this is what makes me happy, how can we both make it work" is the approach that has best worked for me. My wife likes coming home and finding that I'm so much happier than when I was working for a moron, even if there's no money in it (yet).
I'm not saying that the prospect of getting rich is enough to convince wives, just that of all the attractions of a startup-- being one's own boss, working on interesting technical problems, not having to commute to a cube farm, and the possibility of getting rich-- the one that appeals most to wives is the possibility of getting rich. Which is natural because of all the preceding, that's the one that affects them most.
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I respectfully disagree. Consider that:
- People are risk averse.
- Most hackers make pretty good money at 'real jobs'.
- Startups are definitely a risky proposition. As someone else commented, "A startup founder with a successful startup is already a rare exception.".
- So when you're in the thick of it, and there isn't a lot of money, and you don't know if it's going to go anywhere, that reality is going to wipe out any talk of "we might be rich", compared with the alternative of "making pretty good money and living comfortably".
The "this is what makes me happy, how can we both make it work" is the approach that has best worked for me. My wife likes coming home and finding that I'm so much happier than when I was working for a moron, even if there's no money in it (yet).
I'm not saying that the prospect of getting rich is enough to convince wives, just that of all the attractions of a startup-- being one's own boss, working on interesting technical problems, not having to commute to a cube farm, and the possibility of getting rich-- the one that appeals most to wives is the possibility of getting rich. Which is natural because of all the preceding, that's the one that affects them most.