[nostrademons]

If it's impossible, it's only because few people have the psychological makeup to delay gratification for years.

The most surefire way to be able to spend 5 years working on a project that isn't profitable is to spend 5 years saving 50% of your salary. How do you save 50% of your income for 5 years? Get a job paying double the median income (~80th percentile [1]) and live like the median person. Or get a job paying at about the 60th percentile ($65K) and live like someone making half that (~30th percentile). Both of them are eminently achievable for many Americans - by the numbers, 20% for the former and 40% for the latter.

Most people don't do this because they feel like they must be better than the people who make half of what they do, and so blow the excess income on a lifestyle that doesn't really make them happier but certainly makes them look better. If you don't give a shit about others thinking that you're a pauper, you can amass a good amount of freedom, power, and yes, money without anyone knowing.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...

[siberianbear]

And if you keep that up long enough, you can just retire. I retired at the age of 40 by saving about 70% of my take-home salary as a manager of a group of engineers in Silicon Valley.

I will never go back to a cubicle in Silicon Valley. Never.

[staunch]

Some people can pull this off. Most people can't save 50% of their household income. Very few people with families can follow this advice, and that's a lot of good people.