1/ As a former/recovering 4HWW disciple, I've been thinking about writing a post on this to other 'lifestyle' business founders who have fallen into the trap. Some quick thoughts to follow...
2/ A 'lifestyle' business can be a great fit for some people, but you have to ask yourself what you want to do with your free time once you have it. After automating my last business to the nth degree & moving to Argentina (the 4HWW mecca), I had practically unlimited free time.
3/ As a kid, I played games like SimCity, SimTower, and Transport Tycoon in my free time. I could play for hours. When I was finished, I had billions of simdollars that amount to nothing in real life. A lifestyle business is like a video game that makes real money. It's amazing.
4/ After many years, I figured out how to run my lifestyle business as easily as I could play a game like SimCity, I asked myself what I wanted to do with my newfound abundance of free time. And it turned out that what I really wanted to do with my free time was work more.
5/ The paradox of a 4HWW/lifestyle business is that most people who successfully start one actually love to work. Instead of optimizing for free time, I realized I should have been optimizing for what I really wanted: to work on hard problems with as many smart people as possible
6/ A VC-backed startup was the right answer for me for many reasons, but here are two: a) The smartest people generally don't want to come work for your lifestyle business. b) Funding removes the financial constraint that prevents you from hiring the smartest people you can find.
7/ All this reminds me of @cdixon's post: "Climbing the wrong hill." When you're climbing a hill, don't forget to ask yourself if you want the things you get when you reach the top. Because if you're reasonably smart and driven, you probably will. cdixon.org/2009/09/19/cli…
8/ Lastly...the constraining factor in the startup ecosystem is the # of founders who can execute. I think 4HWW/lifestyle business founders are the biggest untapped natural resource. They know how to bootstrap, break with norms, execute, and sell.
