I've come to realize I'd be more happy whenever I have more freedom. Freedom is quite abstract, but for me it envelopes economic freedom and freedom to make my own decisions in work. I enjoy my work as a software developer, but I hate the processes around it in a lot of company settings. I feel a company like Valve gives it's employees a lot of freedom and I wish more companies would treat their employees the same way.
For the aforementioned reasons I'll be starting a company with a friend in June / July of this year. This friend of mine will work on acquiring the leads (he's proven in the last few years he can get work for me) while my main focus will be on developing the solutions for the clients and guiding our clients through the realization process. With this company we will aim for the following goals:
- earn much more money, I expect I can make around 2000 to 3000 EUR more a month in this setting, though I have to spend some of this money on benefit my employer would normally pay for (holidays, retirement, etc...).
- use my own work processes (I'm not very fond of SCRUM for example - at least not in the way it's executed at my current employer).
- take a leadership / guiding role in some projects, especially since we expect we'll be able to outsource some work within a year or so. We've already worked with an Android developer from eastern Europe recently and this worked out well for us. We can imagine making use of more eastern European mobile developers if we don't have the time ourselves for the projects.
- be more flexible with my working hours. My currently employer wants me in the office from 09:00 - 17:00, while I prefer to work from say 09:00 - 13:00, followed by some relaxation / sports and work again between 18:00 and 00:00.
The money will help me gain more economic freedom once I've payed off my mortgage and student loan dept. I don't necessarily need to live in a giant house, but I would like to have a second home in a southern-European country from where I can work in the winter seasons - this is a long term goal I'll strive for.
I believe that by constantly visualizing my goals I will get closer to achieving them. I promised myself I will realize the above goals before I reach the age of 40 (currently I'm 30 years old).
For the aforementioned reasons I'll be starting a company with a friend in June / July of this year. This friend of mine will work on acquiring the leads (he's proven in the last few years he can get work for me) while my main focus will be on developing the solutions for the clients and guiding our clients through the realization process. With this company we will aim for the following goals: - earn much more money, I expect I can make around 2000 to 3000 EUR more a month in this setting, though I have to spend some of this money on benefit my employer would normally pay for (holidays, retirement, etc...). - use my own work processes (I'm not very fond of SCRUM for example - at least not in the way it's executed at my current employer). - take a leadership / guiding role in some projects, especially since we expect we'll be able to outsource some work within a year or so. We've already worked with an Android developer from eastern Europe recently and this worked out well for us. We can imagine making use of more eastern European mobile developers if we don't have the time ourselves for the projects. - be more flexible with my working hours. My currently employer wants me in the office from 09:00 - 17:00, while I prefer to work from say 09:00 - 13:00, followed by some relaxation / sports and work again between 18:00 and 00:00.
The money will help me gain more economic freedom once I've payed off my mortgage and student loan dept. I don't necessarily need to live in a giant house, but I would like to have a second home in a southern-European country from where I can work in the winter seasons - this is a long term goal I'll strive for.
I believe that by constantly visualizing my goals I will get closer to achieving them. I promised myself I will realize the above goals before I reach the age of 40 (currently I'm 30 years old).