Barely Readable

Take my advice: quit your job. It’s quite liberating, but in a good way.

Let me explain: I recently took one of those voluntary severance packages that businesses offer when the reign of merger terror is just beginning. If you take such a package, you will be one of the few sane people at your company, but ironically the first on the chopping block.

(The cynics among us say this is just business as usual.)

So now I’m in a startup. My company constructs walls of a businesslike appearance for me to hide behind while sleeping in until noon and learning Rails. It’s exactly the work my parents had in mind when they sent me to law school.

Some observations from a new entrepreneur about working for yourself:

• You can work when you want, which probably means never.
• You can grow a beard.
• You can pick your nose.
• You don’t get Veterans’ Day off, but that’s just because every day is a holiday.
• You can run errands when nobody else does.
• Your cat will want to play a whole lot more, but this also turns out to be the solution to his weight problem.
• Your weight problem, however, is just beginning. See next point.
• Your only coworker is your fridge, and it’s the type of coworker who’s always bringing treats into the office.

Next week: the isolation, self-doubt, and perpetual terror.