Money vs. Time Scarcity

As you may know, I recently left my well-paying amazing job at a hot startup Sourcegraph in order to pursue building my own startups for at least a year. The idea is to switch tracks to what feels more natural and promising to me now, then, importantly, get used to it, have a chance to make enough attempts at succeeding in finding something that works and feels good, and share feelings and learnings of my journey as I go through it.

One of the biggest paradigm shifts and one of the scariest moments of it has been leaving great money that I am paid for software engineering behind. With this article, I want to share my reasons of doing so. Not only how’s of the adventure that I have embarked on, but one of the why’s as well.

Disclaimer: I am usually fairly critical of an idea of working for someone else, which you should be aware of. Don’t take my experience and thoughts as an advice, especially without working out your financials very well yourself. I think that being a software engineer, especially in terms of compensation, has never been better than it is now—and I don’t advise leaving your great job without really good reasons for doing so.

Now, a bit of a personal background. I had grown up used to money being the biggest scarcity in life. Our family was poor, and buying anything really had always been a challenge back in my childhood. Not surprisingly, I have carried this exact relationship with money through the years, well into the adulthood and latest stages of my career.

Don’t get me wrong: I still understand very well how valuable money and opportunities it gives are. Even though I had been paid very generously (and obviously, got used to it) for a few years until recently when I left my job, I realize that this abundance lasts only while you keep working. Money is still valuable, perhaps even too valuable for me and my family.

The level of comfort and freedom that a software engineer’s salary is able to buy is almost insane these days.

Then, given how used to having money I am and how scarce it was not so long ago, it used to feel even more insane to walk away from even more money that is so readily available for pick up. It did, and it still does to some extent. In fact, the transition from thinking “wow, I can earn so much more—and I should do it” to “ok, even if I do earn a lot, what’s next?” has taken me multiple years and wasn’t an easy switch.

I know for a fact, for many of my peers, and perhaps you as well, ability to earn great money from doing anything really is still the best opportunity of a lifetime one doesn’t simply turn down. It used to be for me as well. But after multiple years of trading time for money, it doesn’t feel so anymore.

Now I feel with every cell of my body how valuable of an asset the time of my life is. It’s never been free to spend time on anything, although it used to feel that way back in my 20s and even early 30s. This abundance is such a deception, and the most natural line of thinking that used to be “well, there’s more to earn—so I should do it” is no longer natural at all.

It has switched to being “I have limited years of life left, so what do I do with it”.

My current answer to this question is to build a self-funded company, a lifestyle business if you wish, that solves an important issue for a group of people I can empathize with. And does so in a sustainable way, meaning that I am interested in this issue per se without the specifics of software engineering so that it can last, as well as that the problem is important enough for a fair number of people so that it can make a solid foundation for a profitable business.

Of course, it comes at the expense of not being able to earn money from doing what I am used to do—professional software engineering for others. But given that I am not walking away completely from this line of business, it seems to be a fair trade-off and a reversible decision if all my efforts go south for any reason.

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