There are many motivations for running a business or starting a new project, including making a profit, achieving non-income based project goals and so on. I think it is helpful however, especially at the start, to explicitly set the goal of actually enjoying oneself, and getting along with other people.
What the work is like is important, especially if your actual goals are as relatively hollow as making money.
The things to watch out for:
- distraction is disastrous. One needs at least a couple of unstressed, undisturbed hours alone a day.
- doing more than one thing at once. It almost always takes longer to do three things at the same time than doing three things in succession.
This post has the weirdness of being started in 2013, and partially completed in 2016. This line is in the three year gap
- not being able to step back, either at all, or often enough, and look with perspective
- if you’re diving in to big or many projects, you just have to work on limiting the amount of time and mental space you expend on them. This is my opinion, but I’m not sure anyone is likely to ever talk me out of it. I’ve done the long, 70 hour weeks, and I’ve done the head in the sand it will run by itself. Neither is ideal, but the latter definitely makes you happier and more relaxed. I think the trick is to be engaged, but clever, and expending the time doing difficult thinking, not putting in super long hours.
more to come!