[dfex]

I've had an idea bouncing around in my head for the best part of 15 years which I wanted to turn into a business. Like many people in this thread: I had a comfortable full-time gig, a young family, bills to pay and a healthy fear of the unknown.

About 3 years ago (entering my 40s), I had a moment of introspection/clarity where it occurred to me that looking back in 20 years time and not having tried would upset me a lot more than any potential failure would have.

So I left my comfortable job and became a solo freelancer/contractor, gave myself a direct pay-cut with a view to building up a couple of years of savings/buffer to subsequently fund myself while building out the idea and the business around it.

What has instead happened is that the freelance/contractor business has become very successful - I get to choose the hours I work, pick and choose projects, I have roughly 12-18 months of pipeline at any point in time, and due to the very niche field I'm currently working in don't have any trouble setting an appropriate rate to the point where I've managed to save about 3 years of buffer in 3 years of operation.

The original idea still bounces around in my head and I've had validation from several of my clients that they would love just such a tool, but: I've already got a comfortable full-time gig, a (slightly less) young family, bills to pay and a healthy fear of the unknown...