Lately, I've noticed that the joy I get from my work has been fading, mostly because it's been extremely hard for me to find a company that shares my values.
I’ve been thinking about starting my own venture for a long time, but the main thing holding me back is my fear of stagnating as an engineer. I still feel like I have so much to learn in the field, but on the other hand, I’m not sure if that feeling will ever go away.
I would greatly appreciate any advice from tech founders ex-engineers on how to resolve this kind of dilemma.
Why do I suggest this? Many reasons. Here are a few:
First, you'll learn that the biggest hurdles to success are your own mind and habits. To even have a chance, you need to learn how to motivate yourself and work without a lot of structure surrounding a project. This is really useful.
Also, regardless of what kind of product, and regardless of whether you want to start a VC backed or bootstrapped company, the first step is getting started and showing some sort of traction. Again, keep the time limited, or you'll waste a lot of time building something no one actually wants. This part is when you'll start to learn about the all important product-market fit.
Finally, you'll learn about what happens when you have something besides your normal work to care about. This is an interesting dynamic. It might change how you feel about work, or it might not.
As far as the concern about stagnation, I've found that rarely goes away if you still have ambition about employment. Once you have a family, this only intensifies. Your personal tolerance for risk might change this dynamic. If you do enough interesting tech stuff on your side project and/or startup, then you can satisfy some of that concern.