Anybody else feeling the only way to have any measure of freedom in your life these days is to run your own business? I would rather be a the whim of customers than some manager.
> I would rather be a the whim of customers than some manager
You'd rather give up the clarity that comes from working for a single person who you can ask exactly what they want, get near-instant feedback on whether it makes them happy, so that you can work for some fickle, amorphous, faceless people who you have little control over whether or not they keep paying you in the future, forcing you to constantly hunt for more, even paying large sums of money (i.e. marketing) to find them?
There's lots of great reasons to run your own business, but if your frame of mind is that you're working "for" your customers, that's definitely not one of them. Successful founders fall in love with solving a problem that many potential customers have, not with working for their customers. It's not the same thing.
On the contrary I know many successful “lifestyle” business owners whose primary motivation for self employment was to remove managers from their lives.
Obsession with solving some problem experienced by many is a very specific mindset that sets tech startups on the direction of hockey stick growth.
I feel as though you’re comparing the best possible manager to the worst possible customer. I assure you managers are very capable of being fickle!
I’ve done some contract work in the past and I think the trick is getting the right customers. I was hired by mine specifically for my expertise. They didn’t micromanage me or make me subject to my whims, they had a problem and recognised that I had the skills they needed to solve the problem.
It was worse before - management culture is becoming more employee-friendly over the years. Probably the expectations of autonomy as an employee are growing faster than the culture is evolving.
Working for somebody is by definition a tradeoff of freedom of making decisions for stability and not having to worry about attracting capital, labor and customers, which is very hard and often under-appreciated by folks who haven't tried themselves.
What I’ve seen work is a two income family where one is self employed and the other works a “boring, stable” job with health insurance. YMMV, as always healthcare and insurance in the US is a load of crap
Yes, that's where I want to get to. Oh, and to preempt the inevitable replies: yes, I would 100% rather have 100 bosses (customers) than one 'boss'. I can't easily fire the latter without quitting. I can find new customers.
Becoming a contractor was a sudden transition for me but it ended up becoming the right move. I have been working for myself now since 2018 and it's going very well.
solatic|2 years ago
You'd rather give up the clarity that comes from working for a single person who you can ask exactly what they want, get near-instant feedback on whether it makes them happy, so that you can work for some fickle, amorphous, faceless people who you have little control over whether or not they keep paying you in the future, forcing you to constantly hunt for more, even paying large sums of money (i.e. marketing) to find them?
There's lots of great reasons to run your own business, but if your frame of mind is that you're working "for" your customers, that's definitely not one of them. Successful founders fall in love with solving a problem that many potential customers have, not with working for their customers. It's not the same thing.
helen___keller|2 years ago
Obsession with solving some problem experienced by many is a very specific mindset that sets tech startups on the direction of hockey stick growth.
afavour|2 years ago
I’ve done some contract work in the past and I think the trick is getting the right customers. I was hired by mine specifically for my expertise. They didn’t micromanage me or make me subject to my whims, they had a problem and recognised that I had the skills they needed to solve the problem.
mikpanko|2 years ago
Working for somebody is by definition a tradeoff of freedom of making decisions for stability and not having to worry about attracting capital, labor and customers, which is very hard and often under-appreciated by folks who haven't tried themselves.
afavour|2 years ago
helen___keller|2 years ago
theideaofcoffee|2 years ago
whalesalad|2 years ago
paweladamczuk|2 years ago
klysm|2 years ago
timw4mail|2 years ago