for me it was the other way around. i founded a company right after my studies. then again. always up to an average size of 25 or 40 employees.
then i found it simply too exhausting to have to discuss with my co-founders or investors. high school politics sums it up quite well. maybe we were all too young (under 30).
in any case, halfway through my professional life, i was more committed to a freelance career. either leading small teams where you have a direct impact. or just being a mentor, giving tips, and then leaving the responsibility to the others.
everything in between, having responsibility but not being able to do it yourself because the constraints are not in your own area, i realized, i can't handle.
and freelance you have the possibility to do something solo / indie on the side, also build something with recurring revenue.
but very very good question. thanks for the thread. i always and regularly ask myself if i did the right thing. i always flirt with management positions when i think of the prestige. (almost more than the salaries).
but then i remember that it was a conscious decision.
good books i can recommend:
So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World ...
The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living ... (I really learned through this to make values-based decisions)
This goes into the direction of something I heard of in the past as "slow business". I started a (now rather small) list, together with the lost manifesto:
https://v01.io/2021/01/13/slow-business-list/
oh, exactly my topic! the last 15 years since my adolescence i have been in countless spirals of more and more coffee, withdrawal, more and more tea (black, green,white, oolong, etc.) , withdrawal, more and more coffee, etc.
1. caffeine works differently for everyone. Each type of coffee (Robusta has 2x that of Arabica coffee) and each type of tea has its own amount. You can't even say that black or green tea has more. There are such and such.
2. understand the effect of caffeine: caffeine does not make you awake, but caffeine prevents you from getting tired. (to a certain extent). so you have to take it at the right times.
3. understand what you actually need: you don't always need the caffeine effect. you also have to distinguish between being awake and being able to concentrate. sometimes you just want to concentrate, then maybe b12 or sugar will do.
A word about sugar: sugar is dangerous. by the way, problems with energy during the day come almost more often from sugar, not only from caffeine.
(when i have to drive a car for a long time at night, i need sugar rather than caffeine. caffeine only gives me a headache. but a pack of wine gums gives me energy.
If you want to level your caffeine, you first have to give up sugar completely for 1-2 weeks.It's mentally hard, but most of the energy waste actually comes from it.
so, and how am i doing today?
lately i had it well leveled. You can escape the above-mentioned spiral of increasing consumption and withdrawal if you always drink the same amount of coffee (and ideally the same brand) at the same time.
- i had e.g. 2 x double espresso in the morning, 1 x double espresso at noon.
- I wasn't satisfied with my sleep-through behavior for 2-3 months, and then just slowly dosed down to
- 1x double espresso in the morning, 1 espresso in the afternoon. in each case before the creative sessions.
dosing down works well during the vacations, for example, when you don't have the same daily routine, expecting the same creative burst.
and remember that sleep always takes a few weeks to settle down.