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Comment by jakobe | Hacker News Reader

Does it have to be like this? Is it not possible to lead a startup and work normal hours (≤8) and spend time with your kids?

I'm torn between thinking I'm putting too little time in my software business (solo developer), and thinking that I'm spending too little time with my family.

I don't want to believe I need to sacrifice my family life to be successful.

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> Is it not possible to lead a startup and work normal hours (≤8) and spend time with your kids?

Absolutely. The problem is that if you go head-to-head with people that will go all out there is a chance that they'll be able to outgun you with a similar sized team.

In practice there are ways to offset for that depending on the situation, for instance, you could have more experience, better quality people you're working with, an established track record and/or a better launchpad.

So it's not just a one-dimensional (time put in) problem.

It also depends on the talents of the team and individual in question... I don't want people to think I'm advocating they dump as many hours as I do into things... I'm just saying thats been my personal way of attacking things. Everyone is different - Im sure there are people out there who can put in way less time and get better results for their needs... this is just what I happen to be doing to make things work. I'm a bit extreme normally anyhow.

Be aware that this can be a trade-off too. It may be that you can burn fast but burn short or that you could burn a lot longer if you pace yourself. If you take off before you reach the end of that runway then good but if you run out of energy before you've reached a plateau of some stability then you could easily lose it all.

Yes - Im aware of that... thanks for the reply...Im getting to the stage where some balance is returning to my life...I plan to take advantage of that and reduce the overload by building a bigger team to help me. ;)

I'm not saying my path is your path.... Im saying thats what I experienced.

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