Lots of people on HN have range, but you might be the winner. Pretty sure that of millions of Hacker News readers only you can say “I have been running a tugboat company for a number of years..”
This is an accidental outcome. I was doing software work for 30 years. My father was building a tugboat company. He passed away. I have stepped in for now.
My pleasure. Once I sell the tugboat company, I intend to write up some lessons learned about the ways in which building my software consultancy did not prepare me for managing pirates.
I was trained as a unlimited Third Mate (Any Oceans, Any Gross tons), but decided not to sit for license and became an engineer instead. Every so often I wonder if I made the right choice, esp. since some of my classmates now own or are running shipping companies.
WHAT? I can sort of imagine one classmate doing it, but I am fascinated that there seem to be multiple ones? To what do you attribute this amazing incidence of entrepreneurialism?
I worked at Microsoft a few decades ago, and just sort of assumed that virtually everyone was there so that they could do their own start up. I was sorely wrong, and only one other than myself did so.
First, I realized that I'm using "classmates" loosely. Not specifically only the people in my graduating class (although that cohort has had some impressive achievements), but graduates from my school in general.
It may be industry dependent in a similar fashion to how many truckers are (used to be?) often owner-operators. You realize that you can only make so much money working for someone else and after a while the lifestyle gets tiring. Hard to settle down when you're away for 6 months out of the year. Or at some point you realize that your odds of being seriously injured at sea are going to catch up to you and you see an opportunity to buy a couple of harbor tugs or the like while managing them shoreside, and go for it.
I honestly never thought about it until you brought that up, but it could be personality types. When my High School History teacher heard that I was going to nautical school, she thought it would be a good fit for me since I was a loner and sailors were basically "cowboys who went to sea instead" in her words. And she understood me very well.
I really don't know the reason but it certainly merits thinking about. Especially since I've had some kind of side-hustle/consulting/business venture during every job I've ever had.
Owner-operator concept brings it into focus for me. Thanks for sharing a very interesting bio. BTW you HN profile lists skills but somehow leaves sailor out. Update that thang ;)
This is an industry where a combination of tenacity and intelligence goes a long way. Since I had to take over the company I currently run, I have been looking for someone to take over my position. All of the suitable candidates are happily employed by bigger companies and would not consider a smaller company (rightfully so, in my opinion).