[jawns]

"...can't help feeling i'm building a dream for someone else."

The reason so many people are content with being employees, rather than striking it out on their own, has to do (at least in part) with their risk tolerance.

If you want a stable, steady income, and you don't want to put a lot of your own money at risk, then you might find that being an employee is the way to go. Yes, other people (investors in the company) are making money off of your labor, but that's because they're willing to risk their investment.

That's not to say that it's impossible for employees to build a dream for themselves, rather than someone else. In companies that are organized as worker cooperatives, the employees (rather than outside investors) own the company. You might want to look around and see if any places around you are organized this way ... or look into starting your own co-op.

Edit, to actually answer your question: I have a day job as a software developer, which gives me a steady paycheck and good benefits. I'm also an author of two books (see my profile for the titles), and that's produced a very nice supplementary income.

[russell]

Risk aversion should not be an issue in your twenties. Packing a crew of developers into a house or apartment cant be any worse than living in a dorm. Even in your thirties failures can be managed with the help of a supportive spouse (whatever the flavor of the relationship).

I am a textbook case of a guy ho did not manage his entrepreneurial career properly. Like a lot of HNers I am basically introverted. Even worse I grew up in a culture, rural Maine, here you did not ask for help; you did it yourself. I had other advantages: degree from a top flight school and college friends that were or became wealthy. But I didnt take advantage of all this, I kept trying to do it all myself. I started several companies which were ultimately unsuccessful. Between startups I supported myself by consulting with a good 6 figure income. Finally in my 60s I became less risk intolerant. My partner got some kind of autoimmune disease which meant I needed good health insurance and a steady income. The downside is that the startup adventures and a divorce left me with no savings or investments at all.

So my advice is to cultivate your circle of friends and serious acquaintances. Learn to present yourself and your ideas effectively. I think a first time, straight out of college personal startup is a real crap shoot, but at the same failure costs nothing. The advantage of being an employee is that you learn what a real company is like. A relatively new company with fewer than 100 employees should show you what a post-startup company looks like yet give you personal flexibility. You will learn about such things as sexual harassment policies, hiring, corporate culture, that can be very expensive to learn by trial and error.

If you are looking for a startup, one lead by people with previous startup experience, successful or not, can be a good bet. Your share ill be smaller, but your chances of success will be larger.

If you have been admitted to a graduate program at Stanford, go for it.

[ethanbond]

> Risk aversion should not be an issue in your twenties.

That's a difficult expectation to meet when you're $50,000 in student debt though.

[claar]

So you work a few years and pay it off, then you can worry about other things. Money and debt management is also an important lesson to learn young.

[einhverfr]

That is why student debt is so insidious.

[avar]

    > The reason so many people are content with being employees,
    > rather than striking it out on their own, has to do (at least in
    > part) with their risk tolerance.

I'm a happy employee, and for me the reason I'm not founding my own startup isn't a matter of personal risk at all.

It's that now pretty much all day I can do what I like doing (programming) and come home at the end of the day and wind down from work.

If you're starting your own company you have to worry about everything involved in that tiny company from acquiring clients to managing staff to building the product, if that's something you want that's fine, but it's not something I'm particularly interested in.

I also very much enjoy working on programming problems at the scale you can only find in bigger companies, if I were to start my own company now and it grew like crazy at best I could get back to the level of problems I solve at work now in 10 years or so.

[petercooper]

The reason so many people are content with being employees, rather than striking it out on their own, has to do (at least in part) with their risk tolerance.

See, I run my own business (and was self employed for perhaps 10 years before that) and I've turned down acquisition offers on the basis that without having "FU" money, having a full time job is as risky as it gets. One source of income, other people get the control over firing you, no guarantees of landing another job within a certain time frame.. that sounds risky to me. (Not that I disagree for people in general, but it's all relative to what you're used to, I guess.)

[sokoloff]

A qualified developer with basic social skills and hygiene habits should have no fear of a full time job's lack of control. Yes, we go through minor hiccups in the hiring market every decade or so, but even in those, all of my friends who were actually good had no issues if they wanted to move jobs.

Get good at development, if that's your thing. It will help you whether you do a startup or work for someone else. (It's also a lot more fun, IMO.)

[nightski]

Which is precisely why this entire "risk" thing is being blown out of proportion. At any time if you fail you can go get a job with ease.

[jpd750]

I'm doing that - took a job straight out for 1.5 years, did a startup - didnt work out. Now, going back into workforce to save up some more $$ (for the next one :) )

[dagw]

Having done many different things I'm currently quite happy "building things to make others wealthy whilst (I) earn (bit more than) £30,000 a year". The reason I like it is because I'm surrounded by managers and other people who's job it is to run interference for me and make sure I can really focus as much as possible on what I find interesting and not be distracted by the necessities of trying to run a profitable company. All I have to do all day is hack and solve problems.

[nathan_f77]

That's awesome to learn about worker co-ops. I was thinking about starting a software development or SAAS company where every person is a worker/owner, so it's good to know they already exist.

Here's what I'd love to do if I ever started my own company:

I start the company with 1 or 2 other software developers and designers. We would each own an equal number of shares. Any new team members would have to go through a relatively intense interview process, but when they joined, they would receive an equal number of shares, which means that our shares would be evenly diluted. And the next time we bring someone new on board, the decision would need to be unanimous.

Since we'd be giving away such a huge number of shares, they would vest over something like 7 years. But we would be giving them actual shares, instead of stock options that you have to exercise with your own cash. Also, keep in mind that that person would probably own more of the company after their first year, than most early employees own after 3. So yes, if we bring on someone new and our company was doing really well, we might be giving away millions of dollars in stock, and paying them massive bonuses in their first month. But why not? If we could pull it off, I think that would be an incredible way to structure a company.

And we'd start all of this without outside investment. Mailchimp and GitHub are two awesome examples of bootstrapped startups. But if it ever made sense for us to raise $100 million, then we'd go ahead and do that, knowing that every single person's shares would be diluted equally.

As soon as we start making enough money, we'd be able to pay everyone an equal base salary. We'd all agree on a budget for equipment, office space, hosting, altruism, and cash reserves, but the rest of the profits would be paid out as monthly bonuses.

We'd also dedicate a very large portion of our time and assets to altruistic causes from the very beginning. Eventually, our company would become a non-profit of sorts, where each of us re-invest our millions, and work on fixing everything that's wrong in the world.

I think that finding like-minded people will be pretty damn hard, but even if it's just ten of us, I think this would be an amazing way to build a company. I don't think this would be able to scale past 50 or 100, but who knows.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant :)

[einhverfr]

If you are serious about this idea, contact me. (Chris at efficito dot com). I would love to help start such a business.

[panduwana]

What country?

[einhverfr]

I am in Indonesia at present but if nothing else can help with ideas and experience.

The businesses I own are currently all on a coop model. I think subject matter is likely to be a larger limitation though than location.

[tylermac1]

I think this is marvelous idea.