Biggest dilemma of my life
I am 3 years into my career and I have deep passion for Software engineering. I genuinely like it. I want to become a better engineer by going deep. But since the time of my internships in college, I have always been fascinated by startups and want to have one of my own. Now I have an idea(again very passionate about) and I’m working on it but my dilemma is that if I run a startup, it’s going to take me away from my other interest of engineering. Any thoughts?
Is the startup a non-product related idea?
Because if it’s a product idea, you’ll probably end up coding in a more real way than you have before
It’s product. And I get it that initially I will be doing most of the coding, which I am already. That in itself is a very enriching. But one or two years down the line I will have more non tech things to take care of. That’s what bothers me. Maybe I’m thinking too much and I should cross that bridge when I come to it. But currently yeah, that’s how I feel.
You are right. After a point most of your time will go to managing other things in the company. Still work on your own thing.
Being a founder myself, I can tell from personal experience. What you love now might not be the thing that you love in the future or maybe not with the same intensity. Just talk to multiple people in 5th or 6th year of their career, you’ll find a general pattern.
Running your own show will give you freedom and that freedom is really more valuable than most other things you can do for someone else. Also if you are able to make money doing your own thing, that enriches life to another level altogether. I hope it helps.