[yanivt]

Sorry to say this but it sounds like you're not a right fit for startups. Startups aren't for everyone. If you want to be a founder it is absolutely a gut wrenching challenge. You have to put yourself out there and then be torn apart a million different ways. You have to adapt and change, listen to others. Be relentless. Work is a grind, you don't get to work on what's fun. You have to work on what's right. And if you can't get a very deep sense of fulfillment with all that sacrifice, it doesn't mean you're a bad person. It just means you should get a normal job, or be employee 100 at a company, just don't be a founder.

[saganus]

I'm curious about what you think is a way to actually get to work on what's fun. I know fun is a personal definition, but as I'm starting to build a product myself and I do find it fun and I'm doing it because I like it being fun, I hear this warnings and it kind of makes me think.

Of course I'm afraid I will fail, but I also don't think working at an office is fun, unless you get to work on a cool project and there's no politics (yeah right..) or something like that. But then if building a product yourself, on your own terms, with your own hands, etc, is not fun, then what is? And I don'mean to be rhetorical or sarcastic. I'm asking seriously.

With a lot of comments along the same lines as how hard it is because in the end it's business, what does it mean to build a product for fun, but where the business part is either not the most important part, or even present at all?

Would that be like building a product and giving it away, so it's actually only for fun?

[yanivt]

I would think the most fun thing to do would be to join a startup that's doing something that gets you excited, that already has an awesome team, that's already validated the product and the market. At that point it's still a lot of work but at least you know what you're getting into, there's less banging your head against the wall, and you're just helping to make the rocket ship go.

[ww520]

I read that he's ok with doing all those you mentioned but had problem with adequate compensation with enough ownership in the startup. It's one thing to drink the Koolaid to toil away on someone else's idea and product direction with little or no pay nor sufficient equity. It's another thing to have the wisdom to walk away and pursue your own thing, even if that comes with all the problems of a startup.