Relax, srsly.
August 13th, 2010My daily routine generally corresponds to the following list:
1) wake up groggily and turn off alarm
2) stare at the ceiling for a bit
3) get the dog out of his cage and feed him
4) feed myself (maybe) and get dressed
5) read reddit/hacker news
Really there should be some exercising in there now that I think about it but that’s not what I’m writing about today.
I am actually more interested in discussing Alan Sugar, the Aussie lad, who has become a millionaire with his multiple start-ups. An article was posted on Reddit (and probably Hacker News) with the caption of “This kid is only 16 years old. Also, he has already made more money than you will probably make in your entire life time.” That’s cool I guess. If your goal in life is to make money, and unfortunately for so many of us in the tech industry, we dream of being the next Gates/Jobs/Fried/Graham/Whoever and lose sight of what it was that brought us into the industry in the first place. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t go out and start new companies doing innovative and interesting things, I’m just saying that you ought to make sure that when you do join a start-up, especially as a founder, you do it knowing that you want to do those things involved in that process.
I’m not a start-up kind of person and probably never will be. Its not that I’m too lazy to do a start-up, so much as, I have thought long and hard about it and observed friends doing it and noticed a common trend: less problem solving, more people solving. I’ve never been particularly great with people outside of a technical context. You want to talk compilers, operating system design, Turing’s Halting Problem or automated theorem proving? Sure, I can do that. You want to talk about how you feel and how we can negotiate to make this a better deal? Mmmm… not so with you on that one. I relate to problems in a technical manner almost exclusively. When my girlfriend tells me one of her problems (she works for Microsoft too as an SDE) at work or with people, I tend to look at it from one direction: how can I effect the most utilitarian outcome. I honestly have little interest in solving people-to-people problems. I want to solve people-to-technology problems.
So what does this previous paragraph mean in regards to the topic of Alan Sugar? Well, first of all, I can’t be him. I probably never will create a start-up and make $1 Million dollars. And chances are, neither will you. Even when you try, your start-up is likely to fail. You’ll probably even drag it out longer than you ought to have in hopes that someone, anyone, will think that that really revolutionary and awesome product you and your co-founder made is awesome. Sadly, it probably isn’t.
So what can we do now that we know we’re destined to a life of ordinary? Well, you can suck it up and say I’m full of shit and continue trying to make that million dollars. For those of you that have what it takes to do a start-up and be successful, this is what you’ll likely do. For those of you that are determining your self-worth by how much money you make or whether you do a start-up or not, you’re doing it wrong. So incredibly wrong and you don’t even know it. The people that are successful in start-ups are successful because they LOVE what they’re doing. There are many people out there trying to do start-ups that don’t love what they’re doing, they love the idea of what they’re doing and what it will potentially result in (millions of dollars earned).
So here’s the deal: relax. You live once, do what you enjoy, even if it doesn’t make you a million dollars. I love the problems that I solve in my job, even if most of the engineers within Microsoft say “You work on COM? Ugh, I’m sorry.” I’m not, and its because I’m learning. All I want out of a job is to be continually learning. If I reach a point in my current position where I am no longer learning then I’ll move to another part of the company and learn something new. If you love the challenges connected with starting a business, then start one. If you love solving technological problems, then solve some. Don’t jump ship to a start-up because it might make you millions. Money is great, but you can’t take it with you when you die. No use amassing huge amounts of it to the detriment of your own enjoyment.
TL;DR: Do what you love, not what you think you love.