Day 644 - Employment vs Entrepreneurship - https://golifelog.com/posts/employment-vs-entrepreneurship-1665017655427
When employed: Company pays a monthly subscription to you for your work. You're answerable to your boss.
When indie: Customers pay a monthly subscription to you for your work. You're answerable to your customers.
Let's get real here... is there *really* a big difference? 🤔
I'm usually the first one to put my hand up that there's a HUGE difference for sure. I'd shout "Because I want to master my own fate!" But lately, been reflecting on it, and I'm not so sure there's a *huge* difference.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's NO difference. There's definitely differences between being employed versus being an indie solopreneur. But I'd argue that the day-to-day experience is **a lot less different than we (want to) think it is**.
Think about this:
- On job it sucks to have a bad manager. When indie, it sucks to have to deal with an unreasonable customer. Both feel the same. Both shit on your day the same way.
- On job you're selling your time. In business, you're selling your time to the product—building features, marketing—in exchange for customers. Sure you get equity and you're building a potentially scalable asset, but it's not like it's 100% passive. Nothing is. You still got to show up to work in exchange of your time for financial returns, right?
- On job, answerable to whims of a single person - your boss. When indie, answerable to whims of customers, co-founder(s), investors(s). No business is an island. You still have to make decisions being accountable to or constrained by others. Total autonomy is a false illusion.
- On job you get arbitrary income ceilings. When running a business, you get market 'ceilings', where winner takes all. There's a power law at work here. Most earnings is consolidated in the top few creators in Patreon, while most of the rest don't earn a living wage.
- On job you risk getting fired. But you can job hop and choose from hundreds of potential employers. As entrepreneur you diversify risk from a single point of failure (your job) to many customers, and you can fire any one customer out of hundreds/thousands, but that's assuming to get to that many customers in the first place. You risk your startup failing first (at an even higher risk than being fired).
So let's get real... on balance comparing between the two, is the lived daily experience really all that different? Feels like for every pro there's a con on both sides. Not one is better over the other in any definitive way.
Ultimately, I feel the main difference is in values and taste. In the same way I say I like eating chocolate versus someone who hates the taste.
Truth is, despite saying all the ways it's a lot less different than I thought, I'd still choose indie solopreneur path. Because that aligns to my values and taste, for autonomy, creativity, meaning.
But at least talking this through, I'm drinking less of the entrepreneurship Koolaid. I'm under less illusions, less enamoured of the benefits of self employment over employment. So that I get a more balanced view and expectations of my own path.
When indie: Customers pay a monthly subscription to you for your work. You're answerable to your customers.
Let's get real here... is there *really* a big difference? 🤔
I'm usually the first one to put my hand up that there's a HUGE difference for sure. I'd shout "Because I want to master my own fate!" But lately, been reflecting on it, and I'm not so sure there's a *huge* difference.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's NO difference. There's definitely differences between being employed versus being an indie solopreneur. But I'd argue that the day-to-day experience is **a lot less different than we (want to) think it is**.
Think about this:
- On job it sucks to have a bad manager. When indie, it sucks to have to deal with an unreasonable customer. Both feel the same. Both shit on your day the same way.
- On job you're selling your time. In business, you're selling your time to the product—building features, marketing—in exchange for customers. Sure you get equity and you're building a potentially scalable asset, but it's not like it's 100% passive. Nothing is. You still got to show up to work in exchange of your time for financial returns, right?
- On job, answerable to whims of a single person - your boss. When indie, answerable to whims of customers, co-founder(s), investors(s). No business is an island. You still have to make decisions being accountable to or constrained by others. Total autonomy is a false illusion.
- On job you get arbitrary income ceilings. When running a business, you get market 'ceilings', where winner takes all. There's a power law at work here. Most earnings is consolidated in the top few creators in Patreon, while most of the rest don't earn a living wage.
- On job you risk getting fired. But you can job hop and choose from hundreds of potential employers. As entrepreneur you diversify risk from a single point of failure (your job) to many customers, and you can fire any one customer out of hundreds/thousands, but that's assuming to get to that many customers in the first place. You risk your startup failing first (at an even higher risk than being fired).
So let's get real... on balance comparing between the two, is the lived daily experience really all that different? Feels like for every pro there's a con on both sides. Not one is better over the other in any definitive way.
Ultimately, I feel the main difference is in values and taste. In the same way I say I like eating chocolate versus someone who hates the taste.
Truth is, despite saying all the ways it's a lot less different than I thought, I'd still choose indie solopreneur path. Because that aligns to my values and taste, for autonomy, creativity, meaning.
But at least talking this through, I'm drinking less of the entrepreneurship Koolaid. I'm under less illusions, less enamoured of the benefits of self employment over employment. So that I get a more balanced view and expectations of my own path.
