Those quotes really inspired me as well! They are taken out of context though, so if you have a few minutes you may want to read his speech in it’s entirety. It’s not very long and well worth it.

Cheers!

I’ve had the good fortune to work for some really great people who’ve started their own companies and, although they were all very smart in their own right, none of them were genius or extraordinarily gifted or wealthy - they had a plan and just set to it - it’s as easy as that and as hard as that (I know you know this part). Most of them seemed almost single mindedly set on a path that no one would sway them from. Your project plan on the side of your site is probably as much or more than most of them had written down - seems like a small thing but public milestones like yours are amazingly powerful. Keep it up.

BTW - That quote you have from Steve Jobs is getting printed and duct taped to the wall at home and work - it’s priceless and possibly the best piece of advice I’ve ever come across. Words to live by. Thanks

And to be honest, I don’t know the answers to all those. This is all new ground for me. Once I’m on it, I might hate it. Course, I’ll never know if I don’t give it a shot. One thing I do know is I’m not happy with things the way they are! It might require less effort and risk to keep the status quo, but I would pay for that by being miserable and never knowing what could have been. So for me the reward is worth the risk right now. I’m more afraid of not doing it, then I am of doing it. If I find that it’s just too much for me, then so be it. At least I’ll be standing at a higher vantage point over my life and will better understand the right path for me.

I appreciate the thoughtful comment Mike, you sound like an intelligent man with good priorities. Family definately comes first. Good luck to ya!

I like the idea of treating the start up like a second job (or an evening class for a local college if that works for you) - you set time on your calendar and say “Tues, Thurs, and Sunday I’m dedicating from 9PM to midnight to work on my thing…”. I think it’s important to involve your family in this - they’ve got to believe in the vision and they’ll be some of your best judges for whether or not your idea holds water. If they think the dream is a good one they’ll make space for you, help you when you ask them, and will prod you along by asking you how you’re making out on phase x of your plan. Sharing your plan with your family (or with the whole world like you’ve done here Zach) seems like a great way to keep yourself on track. It forces you to think through things a little more than you might otherwise and you can bet they’ll ask you tough questions along the way (”have you thought about pricing?, how will you handle customer support?”, etc) - all good things - nothing wrong with “I don’t know” when you’re sitting at the dinner table talking it over.

The one, arguably most important, thing that I often overlook in pondering these ventures is: will it be worth it? Will I enjoy doing that more or will stress of it all make me a wreck? You’ve got to be okay with billing, spending too much time with vendors, picking out business cards, negotiating rates & contracts - at least in the beginning. If this stuff gets you down then you have figure out if it’s a deal breaker or not. Bottom line is that you’ve got to take a realistic look at what your life will be like after you do this? Working 80 hours a week, whether I like what I’m doing or not, isn’t going to work for me - family’s just too important to spend that much time away from them. But 40 or 50 with the occassional 60 hour week is probably not that much different than what I’m doing now..

At any rate Zach, thanks for sharing and best of luck to you - I hope it works out for you and it’s everything you want out of it.

Mike