Hi there, JustStarting :-) Welcome to Startup Nation (SuN)
What you`re asking is one of those $64,000 questions that`ve been
around for a very long time. The question itself isn`t all that hard,
when you examine it from the basic details of survival and support.
Instead, what makes it so hard is that it involves the fundamental
nature of the entrepreneur and their passion.
Perhaps a way to bring out the underlying question is to rephrase it:
I`m passionate about starting a
business and I`m willing to just about do anything I can to get this
thing going. I`ll use all my resources, all my options, talk with
everyone I know, and beg or borrow whatever I need to in order to get
this going. I`m totally invested, and see no other possible way I`d
like to live.
My friend wants to do the same thing, but I`m not sure they have the
level of total commitment as I do. They`re not willing to extend
themselves as much, or put themselves into a risk situation. They don`t
seem to want to risk as much as I do.
Another way to ask the same question yet again is as old as history:
I think I`ve fallen in love with
someone, but I`m afraid that I may love them more than they love me. I
feel vulnerable because I`m putting everything on the line, and I don`t
think I can walk away without being badly hurt. I`m not sure the other
person feels the same way. What if they walk away?
Starting a business involves risk, fear, stress, commitment, and all
sorts of other very personal, intimate, emotional aspects of
psychology. We`re all afraid that we`ll stand up in front of the world
only to be left hanging out there. The result, of course, would be
total embarrassment and possibly a ruined life.
The only advice anyone has ever had for folks in this situation is to
talk it out. There are no guarantees in life, and nobody should be
forced to make such a guarantee. Instead, there are commitments,
promises, and contracts. Your word is your bond, and so old-time words
like "honor," "virtue," and "trust" suddenly come into play again.
You have your surival to consider above and before all else. What good
would it do for you to start a business if you end up homeless, without
a car, and flat broke? If your friend can afford to quit working,
that`s for your friend to decide. You shouldn`t have to quit your job
just to be in synch.
Talk it out. Examine your business plan. Consider what it will take on
a financial level, but also in terms of time and work in order to get
this business going. The likelihood is that neither of you will be able
to draw a salary for at least a year, probably more. If your friend
believes they can quit working and almost immediately replace that lost
income with the new business, then you should have a "frank exchange of
views," as they say. :-)
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