[throwk8s]

> Whereas if we do actually do it, we might fail, which will be hard to take.

It's hard to take because unless you've already got substantial financial security, you may end up broke, and may no longer have any readily available "for-the-money" job opportunities afterward.

[kitsunesoba]

This is the big thing for me. I know full well that failure is not only possible but highly likely, and that the price is my financial safety net being expended. The ego hit isn't the problem, it's the resulting inability to pay bills.

Thankfully I like my day job quite a lot so my strategy has been to try to drive down cost of living where reasonable and accumulate more padding than is actually necessary, so when I finally commit to doing my own thing I'll be able to fund multiple attempts, preferably with some downtime between each to prevent burnout. Success is still anything but guaranteed but I figure that my chances are better that way than if I were stressed and in a hurry trying to make things work before my bank account ran dry.

[ModernMech]

I feel like that’s reasonable, but I’ve never attempted it because I think I would do the same thing with money that I do with time; fritter it away until I get desperate enough to light a fire under my ass.

[r3trohack3r]

Not OP but I read this as it’s hard for the ego to take.

Even for bets that require little financial investment (i.e. digging deeper into physics) and occupy R&R time - failing can be hard to take.

We like to believe we are the version of ourselves capable of doing anything. If you do nothing - you can die believing you wasted your potential. If you do something and fail to meet your own expectations, you can die knowing there wasn’t any potential there to waste.

[allenu]

This is so true. I think the fantasy that we have the capacity to do amazing things in our lives, but there's some external force stopping us, is a lovely, ego-saving one.

I've always thought, I have some great ideas and if I'm ever able to take some time off, I can build something that will surely be successful. A few months ago, I decided that this is as good a time at any at striking out on my own, so I quit my job to pursue my own projects.

With a few months under my belt, I'm realizing, wow it's not that easy. Doubt starts creeping in: Maybe I don't have what it takes. The fantasy I had is starting to crumble a little bit and I start to wonder, if I give up on this dream, what other fantasy can I fall back on when times are tough and I want to dream of a better future?