7/20/11



I got this idea in my head that I really don’t want to put so much work into my finances anymore – I want to make the whole process effortless and automated. I began to think about the business nights and weekends. But it’s hard to find the time when you’ve got a full-time (and very demanding job). One day I said to myself: “If I give it 100% and fail, I can live with that. But I can’t live with going half-way, part-time.”

So on March 1, [2006] I quit my job and began working on Mint. The first few months were tough. I was 25 at the time, and basically oscillated day to day between thinking "This is the greatest idea ever!" and "This will never work. Who am I to take on Intuit and Microsoft? If this was a good idea, someone would have done it before."

It’s very emotional, and I don’t think people ever tell you about that. You see your net worth quickly draining, you have no idea what’s going to happen next, and you’re sitting alone in a room with no help, no resources, just your brain and sheer will-power. When ever I got down, I would listen to "That’s Life" by Frank Sinatra, or think about a Shakespeare quote I liked as a kid: "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might oft win, by fearing to attempt."

- from Interview with Aaron Patzer, from workhappy.net