| One word: strategy. Both quitting your job and engaging in a startup are absurdly risky if you don't have a very cushy safety net. Steve jobs was a hippie who was fine with living homeless and dumpster diving for food, so there was no downside for him in screwing around with startups. Paul Graham completed his PhD in CS from Harvard, so he had a very solid alumni network he could turn to if he ever found himself unemployed. Bill Gates and Zuck both went to Harvard and had trust funds and/or wealthy parents. The stories you're often told of successful entrepreneurs usually leave out one important fact: to be successful, you must eliminate downside risk. Once failure costs you nothing, then it's just a matter of how big your upside can be. You want to get into a position where failure is irrelevant. That's the only way you can fail fast, and fail often. I recommend cutting your costs down to the absolute bare minimum and investing every penny you earn. Try to establish a steady income from consulting and/or investments. Passive income and cost minimization are the keys to freedom and success in the modern economy. You mentioned that you're worried about dating. That's a whole other can of worms. I would say focus on dating while you're working on the preparation phase (passive income/cost minimization). Once you start engaging in startups, you may not have the time. Good luck, and remember: only show up to battles that you're likely to win. Stack the odds in your favor. The more you leave to chance, the riskier a venture becomes. |
One of my coworker quit to do a startup. Now all he is doing is sitting at home and updating Facebook all the time. That is a position I definitely don't want to be in.