2 years back, I voluntarily took a pay cut from 60L/year to 25L to chase my startup dream. Did it work out? No. Was it worth it? Debatable. Will I have regrets later in life? Not a chance.

Yes. Was in a strategy role at a startup that paid quite well. Working hours were quite intense, and I had the ache. Had friends from a previous job and we left our jobs to work on the idea. Idea was to execute 0 to 1 and then raise seed funding, because we had decent savings to not raise a less than $2Mn round (pre seed)

Executed operationally for 9-10 months but it wasn't working. Did not have a pivot in mind. The logical conclusion was get back to the grind.

Haven't gotten back to my old salary yet, it's like falling down a couple of stairs, but okay :)

What were your feelings at the time when you took the pay cut? Do you think the scenario would be different if you had gone full-time with your startup?