[agluszak]

Why do you want so hard to start a business? Why not spend your precious time, money and effort on something else? If what motivates you is willingness to change the world - you can do so by working for a non-profit organization. If you want to earn money - you can be a regular employee.

> Where do you find the strength to keep going? What keeps you going and energizes you?

It is NOT work. I try to work as little as possible. Being a programmer, it is not so hard to earn a good living while working part-time. I'm an urban activist and a guerilla gardener. I spend a lot of time talking to neighbors in our community garden I started :) I also signed up for a literature and creative writing course at the university (in Poland studying is free, I know that's not the case in the US).

Work doesn't have to be the most important thing in your life.

[geoffpado]

Not the OP, but strongly identify with a lot of what they’ve said, so, my perspective:

> Why do you want so hard to start a business? Why not spend your precious time, money and effort on something else? If what motivates you is willingness to change the world - you can do so by working for a non-profit organization. If you want to earn money - you can be a regular employee.

For me it’s agency. I want the freedom to succeed and fail on my own. I’m sick of spending tons of effort on projects that are doomed from the start due to mismanagement. I’m tired of being micro-managed on every decision I make. It’s like some law of organizational structure: if you find the manager who won’t micro-manage you, the company will restructure until you get one who does. I don’t want to be the cog in the machine any more, but I don’t have the political skills to rise the corporate ladder into a position of actual decision-making.

Compared to all that, starting and maintaining a business completely from scratch seems like the easy option. :)

[agluszak]

Ok, I understand that, but why do you want to have this agency in business specifically? Why the focus on tying your agency to making money?

[johnnyanmac]

>why do you want to have this agency in business specifically?

Is there any way to succeed financially without being bound to corporate, and not have a business in some way? Be it gig economy, consulting, independent creation, or a traditional brick and mortar establishment, you at the end of the day have a brand/image to sell to customers that you want money from. It all comes down to business.

The only alternative is to be a stay at home parent, but that's becoming less and less an option in this day and age.

>Why the focus on tying your agency to making money?

Money is power, and power can lead to freedom. If many of us had 10m dollars tomorrow we'd probably take a very different approach to the next few decades of life.

Money isn't the end goal, just the (literal) currency to establishing the end goal people actually desire.

[jononor]

You can stop tying your success and agency to work things. Find another avenue for that feeling instead. Then the micro-managers and dysfunctional businesses cannot get in the way of your success. Then a job is just something that pays the bills.

[johnnyanmac]

>You can stop tying your success and agency to work things.

I could. For my specific goals it's not easy, though. Ultimately my goal isn't money but to help others. And that takes time and energy for the sake of others.

I don't necessarily need all the money (I know my career choices won't pay FAANG salaries), but if I can make enough money to focus full time on assisting others and not split my remaining free time on essentially doing more work, that's just optimal usage of my time here.

[geoffpado]

> Why the focus on tying your agency to making money?

Because other fun hobbies of mine include food and shelter. ;)

Yeah, no, entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily my end goal in life, but I will say it’s been a passion of mine from a young age (even before I knew what “work” really was like). But sure, if I could find some other way to live my life, without a need (or at least a significantly lessened need) to make money to continue to pursue those kinds of passions, I’d take it. I just don’t know what you’re getting at, I guess.

Could I pursue something with more agency outside of work? Yes. But work is such a humongous drain on energy and time that it leaves little of either for doing anything outside of it.