The lifestyle business bullshit (2009)

Some people don't realize the implications of hours worked on effective wages. If you work more for the same income you are giving yourself a pay cut, and worse a free time cut. If you work less then you are giving yourself a raise, and increasing your free time as well, a double whammy.

Most people have trouble thinking like this though. They lose themselves in their work, filling up their time with trivial and menial work (or even, as is typical, spending a lot of time in the office not actually working very much) instead of trying to maximize their effectiveness. They think that somehow they shouldn't work too little because of some sense of a work ethic based on economic systems that are now outmoded. And too they think that earning a high income while working only a little is too much like being actually "rich". Nobody likes being rich these days, they like the money well enough, but they don't like the idea, they want to justify their wealth with long hours at the office.

I think it's mostly investors that make fun of lifestyle businesses. Other entrepreneurs, not so much.

Amen. There's more to life than business.

If you want to devote your life to creating and running a world changing business, do it.

If you want to devote your life to your family and kids, and use a "lifestyle business" to fund it all, do it.

Just remember one is not better than the other. To each his /her own.

> It’s been a long time since there was a direct correlation with the number of hours you work and the success you enjoy. It’s an antiquated notion from the days of manual labour that has no bearing on the world today.

It has never been true. Success has always been primarily correlated with the circumstances of your birth. This is not an antiquated notion so much as a fabrication invented to trick the less fortunate into putting up with it.

In that sense, it is as relevant today as it has ever been.

I have read on here several times that many entrepreneurs want to squeeze their entire working lives into a few short years, banking on the big payout that will set them free.

37signals, on the other hand, was in business for a long time before Basecamp was even released to the public. It has been a slow road, relatively speaking.

I respect what 37signals has done. It is the way I would want to build my own business. However, have they really worked fewer hours to reach some arbitrarily high income threshold? I would suggest probably not. It has just been spread out over a longer period of time.

First of all, "lifestyle business" is a terrible name. I'd like to know who coined that term?

To my main point - With risk of getting downvoted. Why not think bigger? Building business is hard. Be it local publishing house or web based product serving millions of customers all across the globe. It requires same amount of (to quote Churchill) "blood, toil, tears and sweat". Then why not to swing for fences? In smaller markets chances of survival might be higher but survival doesn't equate to success.

Lifestyle businesses are awesome if it is your business (ownership as in equity, not 'responsibility for all the bugs'). Be careful if you are joining someone else's lifestyle business and make sure you know what you are getting into. Depending on the person, there can be nothing worse than only being employed to maintain the founder's lifestyle with no plans for growth, company or career-wise.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

The only people who use "lifestyle business" as a way to downplay, minimize or trivialize a business are often people who have the "lifestyle" and are saying it to people who don't have the "lifestyle".

The best lifestyle to me? Being free of time and obligation to bills to truly chase any crazy idea you want and any funding that may or may not come it's way.

There's a lot to learn from building any business seen as a lifestyle business, namely, you pick up the end to end business skills you didn't have to go big.

The alternative? Get funded and pushed out when you don't have the business chops to grow.

Go hard or go home? Get real, I want to create great things forever, sustainably, not try, fail and go back to finding a job. The part of being successful that makes you a well rounded person is non-neogotiable. Maybe folks here are still in their 20's with no real other responsibilities or obligations or priorities. This is my second internet boom and I can say as much as I've enjoy every second, I enjoy living for a living just as much.

You would think that this article is obvious to the point of not really being necessary to even write. But, I think hanging out on tech forums like HN you read about billion dollar buyouts, massive IPOs and basically I think it gives the impression that is the only way you can consider yourself successful is if you are a part of one of those deals.

I kinda equate it to wishing you were a rock star. It's a lot of show, but in most cases it doesn't result in any particular happiness. And it doesn't even result in a lot of financial success except in those extreme cases - and only for the early employees. There is a perception of excitement but even the day-to-day working long hours is sometimes not that much fun either.

On the other hand there's a lot of businesses out there that don't get much attention. Unfortunately it's not all that exciting to read about on HN with a headline like "I make a decent salary at a no-name company and have a nice, comfortable life"

I work from home and I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with my kids. I've built a successful startup and am launching another without compromising anything. It IS possible and our breed of entrepreneur is more common however underrepresented in the startup community.

Yes, you can work very little and be very successful if you play your cards right. And there is nothing wrong with that, certainly. But hard problems are hard. There are a lot of easy problems I could work on, and probably get funding and then flip the hypothetical company for a quick profit, but I am more interested in the risky, hard problems that most people wisely would not invest in. If you look at the names that history remembers, they all worked their asses off to achieve something great.

We're building an online business while traveling. We're 3 months in Mexico this time. Tomorrow we'll go for a month long trip by car around Mexico and we'll spend those long hours on the road talking about the next feature, enjoying the scenery or stopping for some tasty tacos somewhere. The million dollars may come one day but I don't take any chances: I spend my time capital wisely as you can't buy time. Once it's gone, it's gone. A

I think the main point is, 37 signals runs a bit like a lifestyle business - agile, low stress, no overtime; because that's what they think is the most profitable way to run a software business. Even if they wanted to do overtime, or were in a more cut-throat niche (i.e. taking on Facebook) they would run their shop the same way..

They aren't doing things the way they do because they think it's glamorous, or because it's easier.

This is pretty trite nothingness, even for 37signals. I am not sure why it's been upvoted either as it's not even recent either.

(2009)

All work and no play makes Sally a dull boy. Or whatever. But seriously: don't over-work yourself. I mean if you really want to, go for it, but the quality of your work will decline with you. Meet some new people, go hiking, go outside, eat better, live better, work better, and your work will look better with you.

Lifestyle business is just a business that is not scaled. That can be either because of its nature or by choice.