Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Can entrepreneurs relax?

I make my own games. I do the coding, the design, the marketing, yada yada. In some ways I consider myself primarily a game designer. In other ways I consider myself an 'entrepreneur'.
A friend of mine runs his own business and I'm always yakking about his business to him. My favourite TV program is Dragons Den. I love books on marketing and business. When there is a TV program or newspaper article that says how much business X makes, or what their costs breakdown is, I LOVE it. I'm a bit sad like that.

I think that;s why I've managed to make a living as an indie game dev, despite living somewhere so expensive (England). Most indies I know are coders first, everything else second. they hate self promotion, and they really loathe the business side. I'm lucky that I enjoy this stuff, it means I put more time into it, and my business probably benefits as a result.

But being an entrepreneur also has its downsides. I get the impression that most of us find it difficult to relax. My one guaranteed time to relax is if I'm on holiday in another country, and I know we have nothing planned for that day. I spent 10 days in the Caribbean once, most of it reading on the beach, and it was awesome. But even then, I found myself mentally adding up the income the hotel must bring in, and guessing it's costs and likely profitability.
I'm not sure if entrepreneurs are happier than everyone else, but I think we are more anxious and more fidgety. Maybe thats why most business people seem relatively thin?