Great article. Having had a bank account and several loans (with a house on the line as collateral), I sincerely agree with all of your points.

“Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss describes SDE in detail, with some very specific pointers on how to achieve SDE.

However, I think that it is important to note that many people start businesses (whether or not that business has several employees, leases and whatnot is immaterial) so that they can do more of what they love, day-to-day. For example, as a web designer, photographer, or computer repair person, you might be better off financially by training others, but in doing so, you might lose the time to do what you really love — eg photography.

It’s important to love what you do every day when you go to work.

I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want to scale my freelance business into a full-fledged company with employees and all that entailed. That would put me right back into the corporate world I had left! I love being independent, flexible and responsible for my own work, able to take vacations and travel on my own schedule, and work from anywhere. When we start on a new venture, we’re often so focused on becoming “successful” that we forget to define what success means to us. I like the idea of partnering with people and creating a “virtual team” you can call on when needed.

I also love the part where you “giggled.” Made me smile, too!

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