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Comment by joebo | Hacker News Reader

I'm 32 and have found that my priorities have shifted over time. I had goals of running a start-up and making work optional by 35.

I've been involved in start-ups and have been a partner in a couple.

I now have 3 kids and view my 8-6 job as an athlete views game day. I seek to perform at my highest level during work hours and then try to turn it off after. I don't miss it when I'm with my kids or my wife or friends. For me, there's more to life than work/job/running a business.

I've also come to the conclusion that I have 100% certainty of improving my kids lives through spending time with them. That time doesn't scale like running a startup, but it's guaranteed to be effective. I'll take those odds over the 1 in a million of running a startup, even if it's just improving 3 lives.

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But had you successfully created a startup, you would be able to spend even more time with your kids.

Furthermore, if you were actually doing something you enjoy that 8-6 time slot, 5 days a week, wouldn't be a waste of time.

> But had you successfully created a startup, you would be able to spend even more time with your kids.

What's the measure of success? Is the measure to generate or exit with enough income to spend more time with my kids? If so, that's pretty rare I think. By "more time", I assume we mean substantially more, as in, not having work a full time job and maintain current lifestyle.

That's the 1 in a million odds I'm talking about. It's not like the lottery where you find out instantly if you win or lose. It can take a decade of extremely hard work and long hours to find out if you've succeeded at that level.

> Furthermore, if you were actually doing something you enjoy that 8-6 time slot, 5 days a week, wouldn't be a waste of time.

I enjoy it greatly. I may enjoy running a start-up that is influencing millions of lives, but maybe not. The grass is often greener. My job has visible impact on hundreds of lives and I have a decent work/life balance.

> But had you successfully created a startup, you would be able to spend even more time with your kids.

Sounds like they gave it a try and it didn't work out.

> Furthermore, if you were actually doing something you enjoy that 8-6 time slot, 5 days a week, wouldn't be a waste of time.

I didn't see where they called it a waste of time or didn't enjoy it?

Nice... 3 kids at 32! Sounds like you made that your "startup" instead. Happy to hear you've decided to commit to making that successful. :-)

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