[leros]

I'm potentially starting similar journey. I made really good money in industry but I can't stomach the idea of working on someone else's project anymore. So starting my own thing but not making much money yet. Do you ever wonder if just staying in your job would have been better?

[leoprctmp]

Actually, no decision is simplely good or bad.

Continuing to work at my current company would certainly be more comfortable, and I wouldn't have to endure any struggles, but that's not the life I want.

Like you, I can't stand working on projects for others; this stems from my personality. It's undeniable that most people can tolerate it, even if they don't enjoy it.

It was after 7 or 8 years of starting my own business that I began to see decent financial returns. Looking at the entrepreneurial journeys of other programmers around me, it's roughly the same pace. So if you are going to start a similar journey, remember to tell yourself every day that tomorrow will definitely be better.

BTW, Why is it so difficult to get started?

I looked back and realized that it's because we are targeting an incremental market.

If we were aiming at an existing market, it would likely be much easier.

[bruce511]

>> I looked back and realized that it's because we are targeting an incremental market.

>>If we were aiming at an existing market, it would likely be much easier.

Maybe. We have 3 products. 1 was basically "first mover computerized manual processes" (that's doing well, and we have serious market share), 1 was a niche area that we came to "early" in the cycle. Once we decided to do that "in a business way" (most everyone else in the niche was doing it as a side gig ) we dominated.

The 3rd came along much later. We had a superior product, better support, better everything. Penetration into the market has been very slow and very hard. Existing users in the space are mostly "happy enough" with what they have. Getting customers to switch is a LOT of work. After almost a decade in the space we're slowly being accepted as a legitimate option.

So new markets may be slow, but you grow as they grow, and you become hard to unseat. Old markets can be really hard to penetrate.

The grass isn't greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water it.

[florida_man]

my current thinking is that working for someone else will read to misery/what ifs but will be comfortable for sure especially in high paying big tech

working for self will have a lot of suffering, at least I will have tried & I can give myself sometime after which I can resign to working for someone else again; at least for a bit

both paths have some suffering, with second the suffering has meaning