Quitting your job to pursue your passion is a privilege

> Quitting your job to pursue your passion is bullshit.

Not at all true. I know plenty of working class people who have saved money at their day jobs, researched a small business opportunity, and chosen to pursue it. A decent portion of them are succeeding beyond their wildest expectations. All are glad to have had the experience and put their money where their mouth (dream) is. You only live once after all. Not starting a business you wanted to is not a stone you want to leave unturned, for a lot of people.

But there's some key points here. They saved money. They planned. They came up with contingencies.

> This messaging is only beneficial for privileged people and very dangerous for working class people.

Right, throw away that ambition and continue to be my employee until the end of time. This is the kind of thing I would write as a modern day "Lord of the Manor".

Once again, be intelligent. Have an idea of your worth. Use the internet to do research, learn about small businesses, and financial planning.

Of course there's a big difference between a working class person and the kid who grew up in the valley with parents working at GoogleSoftBook who gets shuttled into Stanford and isn't in a rush to pay loans or move out after graduation, preferring instead to make mobile apps with his frat. That doesn't seem to be what's being discussed though. It's just some vague attack at those who go out on their own. I'm surprised this sort of post is getting upvoted on HN. Are we a forum of spectators envious at those who chose to try that which we did not?

As a final thought, people complaining about other people's privilege would be doing themselves a much bigger favor if they got off their ass and worked to maximize their own potential. Don't try to bring me down, work on bringing yourself up. I'd be happy to help.

[EDIT] Also want to add that people grossly underestimate the responsibility of being their own boss. There are a lot of tasks you have to handle outside of your usual work like finances, scheduling, client outreach, etc...

The OP seemed to understand this, but a lot of people will create a start-up for the sake of being on the creating end of something without really knowing how practical their venture really is.

Paul Grahm may disagree though.

Yes.

Being an entrepreneur is about selling. Few people are good at selling. If you're good at selling, you can make good money doing it for someone else.

Expecting most people to be good at selling is a cruel fantasy.

Of course I'm thankful for my situation, and realize I'm luckier than many Americans, and lucky to live in a prosperous country. But is it really "privilege" to live frugally enough to save up for years, and then quit my job to pursue my passion? Am I not supposed to do that at all? Am I supposed to feel my privilege for having a job? Or computer skills? Or a computer in the first place? Electricity? I don't know where, to the author, the privilege train is supposed to end.

The fact that I am even here is evidence that I quit my previous career to pursue a passion. I also don't assume that the same decision would work for everyone. But I'd hardly call it "bullshit".

Words like:

  - Patriot
  - Freedom
  - Terrorism
  - Never Forget
  - If we don't do X, they win

But only to face new words:

  - Privilege
  - Trigger
  - Victim Blaming
  - Social Justice
  - Perpetuating false narratives

When I see buzzwords, especially the politicized variety, I'm pushed away from an article, because I sense an attempt to manipulate and pander to a preferred audience, and that feels dishonest to me.

I live with a gardener who makes just above minimum wage[1] who is planning to start his own business. For him not to do so would be a gigantic waste of his skills, as he's far and away the most competent employee of his current boss. He's courageous because he's going to take a carefully managed risk in order to fully use his skills, even though his life is reasonably comfortable as is, and by doing so will fractionally lower the cost of living for all the residents of the apartment blocks he plans to service[2].

When people say "pursue your passion", what they really mean is "you are too good for your current job, and staying there is a waste of your good fortune". It's a goad to prod the elite into working and climbing long after they've passed the point where they can live for the rest of their lives on savings and investments, and to push the comfy middle class to go through the extremely uncomfortable process of starting a business.

Having the audacity and wealth to single-handedly eradicate polio is also a privilege, but Gates is currently trying to do it, because society taught him that he'd be a good person if he did good things. Turning around and denouncing entrepreneurs as privileged will make for fewer entrepreneurs, even if it's true, in the same way as calling Gates a privileged do-gooder sufficiently loudly might stop his charitable work in Africa.

[0] hopefully positive change, and hopefully change that uplifts others

[1] minimum wage here is quite a bit higher than in the US

[2] by raising supply; I'm not an economist, correct me if I'm wrong here

"But what bothers me most is how we prop up the entrepreneurial class to be inherently brave and courageous."

I think she projects how she felt about entrepreneurs onto everyone else. I never thought of them as inherently brave, there are many kinds.

One small other thought is if it wasnt for entrepreneurs everyone else would have no one to work for. I am an entrepreneur not because of any particular bravery, I just like knowing there is no one to blame but me if I fail.

tl;dr OP quit their job because they were depressed, got bombarded with quips about how courageous they were, got seduced by conflating their depression with a courageous career choice, then talks about what caused other people to be so excited for them when entrepreneurial endeavors is a privilege reserved for the upper class, instead of a practical social contract of the American Dream

Two other points I think are relevant.

First, people treat passions are something one is born to. The things I'm interested in now I learned of mostly due to accident. For example, I got into programming languages because I read Philip Greenspun's writing back in the day, which took me to SICP, and from there onto other programming language theory. I studies AI thinking I was interested in genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic, but an inspiring lecturer got me interested in statistical machine learning. These are just lucky accidents. There are many other areas that would be just as deep that I could have landed in. A few chance encounters at the right time and I might have ended up in graphics, or distributed systems, or some other field away from computing.

Second, business as a sole trader is hard. It gets much easier when you can share the load and specialise a bit.

The problem is that you need to give it 100%. Otherwise you are just replacing one job with another. It is not good idea to 'travel the world' while building next startup. Best thing is to lock yourself in cheap basement, work 12 hours day, take regular walks, eat and sleep.

What killed my passion was toxic marriage. I filled time I would spend at work, with another task. And my passion was still on side track.

And author himself admits, he quit for other problems, following his passion was sidetrack.

Anyway just one warning: it takes lot of dedication and self-control. If you are struggling with procrastination etc, dont even think about it!

disclaimer: I am drunk

This article is more about "employment is better than freelance". Seems like the author had no passion neither as a full-time employee, nor as a freelancer. It seems like the author don't know what passion really means or simply has no priority for it in her life.

That's ok unless you say that entrepreneurship is "bullshit" for working class. Sounds like a very biased statement. Everyone has their own way. There is nothing wrong with people who have passion to something different than full-time employment.

There are risks and then there are calculated risks. In other words, you should always know what you're getting yourself into ahead of time. A simple understanding of evidential probability will yield you the proper decision making tools in that regard.

I agree with the sentiment that privileged people have a softer landing if they fail, but there are many examples of working class or even penniless entrepreneurs becoming successful. Jan Koum comes to mind.

Working on your own on something you are passionate about is, in fact, not the ideal for all. Many many people see work as a paycheck. They derive their meaning from activities from outside of work.

One could argue they could enjoy work more if they incorporated a passion into it, but then what if they lose that stark line of separation? Some people may actually enjoy a clear line between work (make the money) and fun/meaningful stuff (spend the money on)

What if that passion loses its luster once its your work? What if you get most meaning from close relationships, how do you incorporate that into a job?

I'm wary of most things that say this is the ideal for everyone. There are universal needs but there are not universal ways to meet those needs.

1. Impose tax on corporate revenues, not profits

2. Regulate market capitalization of corporations

It's true that some people are going to have an easier time quitting a full time job to pursue a passion than others. The correct response is for those of us who have that privilege to do our best to recognize that not everyone can do that, and then enable those people for whom that's harder.

Discussions of privilege derail when they turn in to "...and so you should feel bad for being happy." No, you should recognize that if it's within your power to help other people be as happy as you are, you have a responsibility to do that.