Free from 9 to 5

“… I had a sexy, ego-stroking job that made for great bragging material. But I was being eaten alive by all the work, and drained by the politics of working in a large company.”

Another story of someone who became free from 9 to 5…

Phil Steinmeyer runs his own game software company. I followed his blog because he seems to be running a successful microISV, something I’ve been trying to do. I took Phil Steinmeyer up on his offer for a free copy of Bonnie’s Bookstore. In return, I agreed to write about it, so here goes…

Bonnie’s Bookstore is in the “casual game” genre, a genre that is receiving a lot of attention these days due to the successes of games like Bejeweled and Snood. In Bonnie’s Bookstore, you are presented with tiles of letters and you eliminate tiles by spelling words with them. It offers a quick break and can be quite addicting. I introduced the game to my wife just 45 minutes ago, and she’s still at it.

There’s also some sort of storyline to the game, but to be honest, I don’t know what it is because I skipped all that and went straight to the action. And sometimes, it accepts words I don’t think are words, like “NAE”, and other times, it doesn’t accept words I think it should, like “YOYO”. I guess it just depends on the dictionary the game uses. Nonetheless, I find the actual gameplay to be fun, entertaining and a good alternative to Minesweeper when you want a different sort of diversion.

I met Ian Landsman through our blogs at the beginning of the year. We were both embarking on the microISV ownership path. He and his company, UserScape, have been far more successful than me. Here’s his story…

Ian, please give us a little background on your business.

UserScape builds help desk software for small to medium size businesses and business divisions. The average customer so far tends to be a business with 1 to 5000 employees.

We were formally incorporated in March 2005, though in practice we started developing HelpSpot about a year ago now.

UserScape is located in the beautiful Hudson Valley, about 2 hours north of New York City.

Do you work from home?

Yes, I’ve set up dedicated office space in the house. I’m currently looking into office space, however, that will probably wait until the spring.

What kind of traditional 9 to 5 job(s) have you had in the past, if any?

I’ve had a bit of a wandering career. I started out as an accounting major. After school I went to work for Office Depot, where I was an assistant store manager. The money was good, but overall, the job was less than rewarding, so a few years in, I decided it was time for a change.

I left Office Depot and went to work for a startup in the educational technology field. There, I learned how to formally program, though I was always a bit of a computer geek. As a product manager, I was responsible for all customer support. This is really where the idea of HelpSpot started and many of the features I wish I had in my tools back then are the core of HelpSpot today. During this time, I also began consulting on the side, developing websites as well as several corporate intranets.

My last 9 to 5 was working for Marist College running the eLearning technology and programs. Among my responsibilities was the management of the support system for over 5000 people who used the eLearning system daily.

What led you to start your own business?
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One of the most successful microISV’s around, Bradbury Software, has been bought by NewsGator. Nick Bradbury is moving to the next level with his popular FeedDemon and TopStyle software!

Paul Graham founded Viaweb back in the mid-90’s. Viaweb developed online store creation software that Yahoo acquired in 1998 and made into Yahoo Stores. Paul apparently became very rich from that and is now doing whatever he wants.

One of the things he wants to do is help others do what he did. That is, start a successful company. Paul is part of a group that is running a Summer Founders Program. If you’re accepted, you get to move to Cambridge for the summer and get a stipend for starting and running your own company. It beats the heck out of summer job. I wish there was something like this when I was a student!

Another way to be free from a 9 to 5 is to really love what you do. Everyone is familiar with this. If you love what you do, then it won’t feel like a job. A prime example of someone who seems to have achieved this is Robert Scoble of Microsoft. He is a technical evangelist for Microsoft. Sort of like an informal grassroots marketing/PR guy. If you’ve been reading his weblog for a while, you can tell that he really likes his job. I bet, to him, his job doesn’t feel like a traditional 9 to 5 job.

Along the same vein, Steve Pavlina’s weblog contains a wealth of articles on finding your passion, your goals and your purpose in life. His weblog is about personal growth in general, but a subset of his articles focuses on finding out what you really want out of life, something that most traditional 9 to 5 jobs are at odds with. Steve completed a bachelor’s degree in something like 18 months, decided a 9 to 5 wasn’t for him, so he founded a successful PC game development company (Dexterity Software) and is now embarking on a new career in public speaking. Steve also has a bunch of great articles on his Dexterity website intended for independent game developers, but anyone looking to shed a 9 to 5 job would benefit from them.

This guy went from a 9 to 5 programming job to being a courier in Toronto, Canada. His account sounds very appealing and I admire the choice he made, but this wouldn’t be a good move for me, however much I want to be rid of a 9 to 5 job. I don’t like the part about inevitably getting hit by a car.

“If it’s a slow afternoon and you want to lounge around outside the hub drinking coffee or even beer, no one will ever come over and ask you if that is an appropriate way to spend company time. Ever.”

“I often describe myself as a chronically lazy person, but to be honest, I don’t mind working. I simply hate working under an oppressive structure. As a coder, I would find myself slacking off just because the environment gave me no motivation to work hard. And at the same time, I hated the obligation to look busy from nine to five, regardless of how much actual work [there] was to do. And I hated working in a cubicle ten meters from my supervisor’s office.”

“Issues of pay aside, I can easily say that couriering is the best job i have ever had (and I have more than a few eclectic jobs on my resume). … And, even considering the fact that my pay as a courier is between half and two thirds what it was as a coder, it is a rare day that I seriously consider going back.”

Update: Upon further research, starting from his kuro5hin profile, it seems this coder turned courier has self-published a novel and wrote a guide to looking busy at work, sure signs of someone looking for alternatives to a 9 to 5.

David St. Lawrence’s blog title says it all, “Post-corporate adventures”. After being part of a workforce reduction at a Silicon Valley company, he involuntarily retired, but is running a custom woodworking business along with working an occasional business consulting gig. He is at retirement age, and may have been able to retire anyway, but the lessons he shares are applicable to anyone looking for a post corporate life, young or old. He recently wrote an e-book entitled, “Danger Quicksand – Have a Nice Day,”, offering unconventional advice on how to survive in the modern workplace. It has been such a hit that he is now self-publishing it. From running his own woodworking business to self-publishing his book to dispensing advice based on his years of experience, David has provided much inspiration for a life free from a 9 to 5 job.