entrepreneur or grad student/academic/professor?

[floyd]

any intps here have experience both running your own business and being in grad school/teaching/researching? which did you prefer? why?

[libertarianjim]

Grad school/teaching/researching: love it.

Own business: no interest in it. Doesn't even register on the radar screen, unless it were something like campaign management. Not that I have the money to start my own business anyway.

[Shai Gar]

i want my own businesses, but only as assets i dont want to have to work there.

i would love to do research but high school and teaching is fun

[INTrPosr]

After all the years I have worked, I am looking for payoffs and practicality. I would bore to death of research on daily basis. Definitely like to idea of consulting.

[DevRock]

I'm bringing this back from the dead.

I can't seem to find anything that keeps my interest, other than tech support. I've been a writer for the past two years and there's just no real challenge in it to me anymore. My current job requires about 1/2 hour of real effort every day, yet they still pay me well. I am bored out of my farking mind.

I've been doing tech suport on the side, which seems to be doing well. I set my own hours, etc and the pay is great. I've been debating going into business for myself, but a few things are holding me back. Mostly, my lack of motivation. I have a wife, a house, a car (my hobby) and a kid on the way. My motivation to "succeed" isn't any greater than it was last year.I've been told by a number of people I rely on (like my career counselor) that going off on my own would be my best option since nothing else appeals to me and I don't see the point of me working 40+ hours per wek to mak someone else money.

I'm curious to hear about any INTPs who've been successful running their own biz. Would I like to be a college prof instead? absolutely. I almost went to grad school for philosophy, but my brain got fried in my senior year in college (had to take 22 credits to graduate on time, long story) and I haven't recovered 11 years later. :) Unfortunately, it wasn't fried in the fun way!

[MaroonBells]

I will not die a happy man if I fail to set up my own business. It is always on my mind.

[Nighthawk]

Grad school/teaching/research (3 years): loved it. Aspiring towards doing it again. The research and school part were more of an intellectual challenge than anything I experienced in the military or corporate world. The teaching part enabled me to become close to an expert in several areas.

Own business (6 years): helping my wife run a legal consulting business. It is lucrative, but nowhere near as fun as school/teaching/research. I get caught up in lots of mundane, repetitive details like: bookeeping, taxes, proofreading, billing, management of contractors, tech support, graphic support, making endless copies. Not much of an intellectual challenge (for me, anyway ... wife does the consulting part), just the grind of SJ work.

[DevRock]

Well, I'd be more of a one-man-show doing tech support for home users, tutoring (SAT writing - parents are so hyper-competitive in my area, they'll pay anything to get little Ashley into Yale...) and freelance writing. So, hopefully, those larger biz headaches won't plague me. Fortunately, my wife is an accountant, so she can help me organize my finances.

[Nighthawk]

Well, I'd be more of a one-man-show doing tech support for home users, tutoring (SAT writing - parents are so hyper-competitive in my area, they'll pay anything to get little Ashley into Yale...) and freelance writing. So, hopefully, those larger biz headaches won't plague me. Fortunately, my wife is an accountant, so she can help me organize my finances.Sounds like you're close to an ideal situation for your own business :) Moving between those three things should give you enough variety to combat the boredom for quite a while. Plus, if one is slow, then the others can take up the slack. I admit that I'd like the home business much more if I were the one doing the consulting and my wife did the SJ work. Ironically, she is an SJ.

[kuranes]

Well, I'd be more of a one-man-show doing tech support for home users, tutoring (SAT writing - parents are so hyper-competitive in my area, they'll pay anything to get little Ashley into Yale...) and freelance writing. So, hopefully, those larger biz headaches won't plague me. Fortunately, my wife is an accountant, so she can help me organize my finances.
What's that like as a biz? Are you speaking of creative writing in general, or technical writing of some sort? I've got a Creative Writing degree, and it might be a vehicle for me to start up something. I did pretty well in the verbal part of the SAT, but that was ages ago. Not sure what it gets into today, if it's changed at all.

[DevRock]

Sounds like you're close to an ideal situation for your own business :) Moving between those three things should give you enough variety to combat the boredom for quite a while. Plus, if one is slow, then the others can take up the slack. I admit that I'd like the home business much more if I were the one doing the consulting and my wife did the SJ work. Ironically, she is an SJ.

Well, my career counselor insisted I come up with three options because one will inevitably get slow. My computer biz comes to a near standstill in the summer. While the tutoring should be hot. The writing, I do at-will whenever I can.