Me. Though I started from zero so I had no medium sized option

If you take on investors, vet REALLY hard to make sure they are the right people. The wrong ones can not only make things a nightmare but destroy the very thing you hoped to grow

A high quality problem I guess.

If you don't need the money, and you can't see your life improving, what's the point?

Growth isn't always positive. Having others dictate the direction of your life isn't either.

There's nothing wrong with being humble. Bigger isn't always better. You're not less of a man because you're not running a multimillion dollar multinational universally recognised wine company.

I guess it depends on what you want out of life.

Tough call man.

You’ve got a good thing going now. Small, niche business which provides freedom. But it would be pretty cool to expand and have a tasting room etc but would ultimately suck your free time.

Can always expand later. But if you’re looking for a new challenge maybe it’s time to start scaling now.

I’d say do what’s right for you and your family. Nice to have more time on your hands and less stress with young kids (assuming that’s the plan of course).

At the end of the day, Bitcoiners are meant to build. Just depends what you want to spend your time building.

As with everything, take the path of least regret. Do the thing you can’t imagine living without.

What would you do with the wealth after going hard for 10-20 years?

It's tough, but I think it's a question of how much is "enough"

Go as hard as you can while you’re young. Kids, business, all of it.

Front-load the pain.

By age 50, the die is cast and all you do is think about when you can take your foot off the gas. Try to be secure before that.

Go hard until you have kids. Until then you can be compounding harder for their future without missing out on any time with them because they don’t exist yet.

For me personally….

I defined my lifestyle goals: the sort of car I wanted, the sort of girlfriend and friends I wished to have, the type of home and neighborhood I desired, the variety of hobbies and activities I wished to engage in, etc. I told myself that when I reached a net worth that would support that lifestyle until I die, I’d retire. And that’s what I did. It was a fun ride it didn’t involve having to take on partners or investors, etc. It’s a modest life but a fulfilling one. I’m glad I chose that path.

But there are others in my social circle who had much higher standards. First class travel wasn’t enough. They want the private jet. A 9 girlfriend isn’t enough. They want a model-quality wife. They want the mansion in Connecticut, the country club membership, lots of kids, each going to private school, exotic vacations, etc. They want to leave a “legacy” and have their name on hospital buildings. Those guys are aiming so high that they really need the additional capital and coordination of business partners and investors. They need to take their company public. They need to spend an additional fifteen years achieving their billion dollar dreams.

You have to figure out which class you fall into, I guess. I don’t really know you, but you seem like the type who values life enjoyment, spending time with friends and family, improving your skills, etc. rather than becoming a wine industry superstar on the cover of business magazines. If you can do reach your life goals without taking on a partner or outside investors and working yourself to death, that’s definitely the path you want, in my opinion.

Go hard until kids, then scale back. Maybe eventually sell, unless ths scaling back is working and then keep on keeping on. Time is how you'll measure success soon.

Sounds like a bunch of fortune cookie messages.

When your head is down, making your millions, the fresh pow fields with your name on them will haunt you.

Very few people speak for the trees but the trees always speak to us. You know what’s right.

How close are kids? We built a business while ea. working 40hr/ week jobs before kids. Now on the way to walking away from 9-5s and can run our business in 10 hrs a week on avg. and show the kids entrepreneurship. We’ll have 3 under 5 by late October.

You can always scale later.

Have you read the 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris?

Knowing you for a few years now, even if just through the web, my sense is one of these paths will be fulfilling to you, and the other won’t. If the second choice is, keep making great wine, grow your business organically (no pun intended), and save what’s left in Bitcoin, you’re going to be absolutely fine. (The choice is as clear as your conviction in Bitcoin, if ya think about it). But also, if you’re still making wine, then the option of pursuing external investment will still exist a few years from now. Choosing to wait might mean forgoing a specific opportunity now, whereas choosing that opportunity may mean limited options later. (I don’t know the specifics, but this is how I try to evaluate making decisions around opportunity, offers, etc.).

My two sats - hope it helps 🫂🤝

It’s a tough decision.

Go through the same thought processes with my business. My scale has been bootstrapped so far, we stack bitcoin, and run a lean operation.

I’ve continued to choose the path of bootstrapping and keeping my peace and time. I think each choice can work. Best of luck navigating through it!

As a lifelong small business owner I’ve had the opportunity to work in many different business structures, but the one I’m most impressed with, that I never considered is the family farm. It solves all the problems you are struggling with and gives you the ability to leverage time without sacrificing family.

Btw, family is the most important thing, above all else and you should never sacrifice family time for work. I wish someone had told me that 20 years ago. I’m 51 and mostly retired and I wish I spent more time teaching my kids life skills and lessons.

Here’s the quick story. Last year I decided I wanted to add butchering to my skill set. I found a local processor and volunteered to work for free for a few days a week in exchange for learning the trade. A true apprenticeship. After several months of learning the trade and networking with other processors I was offered a part time paid position at a shop that would allow me to build my skills even further. This new shop is run like a family farm.

The owner has five children and everyone has a job. The kids don’t work all day or even every day. But they all know some aspect of the work and he lets them slide into responsibilities that they are interested in. Everyone knows how to clean. The older kids (10-14) know how to work the POS and suggestive sell to customers. The younger kids vacuum seal product and stick on labels. A seven year old cleans the bandsaw I use at the end of the day so I can stay focused on high value production activities.

Chicken processing day is all hands on deck and it’s amazing to watch. It warmed my heart when a nine year old told me “there are no breaks on chicken processing day.” The had a task, a plan and a defined goal. We started with 144 live chickens and 5 hours later everything was cut, packed, in the freezer and cleaned up. Then we went to Dairy Queen.

Dad spends more time playing with his kids every day than most parents do in a week. He spends more time parenting in a week than most do in a month. He lets the kids come up with ideas and implement them into the business. The guy truly is brilliant at running a harmonious family and a pretty good small business owner.

For example: Let’s say you want to build a tasting room. Instead of talking on investors and having it built for you, increase the time preference and make it a family project. Spread the cost out over years, spend more time with family and maintain ownership of what you have already built. Plus, what a cool story it would be to tell customers how your family literally built the place.

Of course, I don’t know your exact situation and it would be up to you to make it work, but I’m really impressed with this business model and plan on implementing it in my next business venture.

This is a common issue.

Your scenario lays out the question to be answered. Chase more or move closer?

I’ve seen a lot of business owners come to me thinking they want one thing but after a short bit together it’s clear that was just the only option they saw.

I’d recommend getting ultra clear on what it is you want.

Map out the life you envision, put a price tag and timeline on it. Then calculate if it’s achievable was what rate of return (I like 15%, 30%, and 70% CAGRS)

Once I know the math I can see if my envisioned life is attainable and required capital to reach it in my desired time.

You ask “do I want to come out really wealthy”…well what is that number? Does it solve the problem you are going after (your vision)? and do you even need to work 10-20 years to make it happen?

Maybe you only need to hunker down for 5…or maybe it’ll take 30…

Seeking wealth is not solvable as it’s a multi variable equation. You have to lock in on what you want, cost, and timeline…then do the math.

You may find you don’t want to be financially “wealthy” anymore because the family and future you envision won’t cost as much as you think…or you may need to be financially wealthy in fiat terms becasue the life you envision is going to cost a lot monetarily…

You have to create a solvable problem…

P.S. I tend to like both/and solutions as bias

1. Most amount of options

2. Least effort (on a risk adjusted basis)

3. Least risk

Grind for the next 10 years; you'll never be stronger than you are now so hit that shit hard while you can. It's hard for young folks to picture not being able to do everything they can do today in 20 years, but that age shit shows and don't give a fuck, so get the grind on now and then pull back and enjoy the ride. Plus you'll find the windows of fun in the grind years - work your plan - stoked for you.

I was grinding. Then read a chapter in a finance book called "When is enough, enough"

Half way through that chapter i decided to quit my job. Fix up the rest of my house and move on.

That was a year ago. Today i am painting trim and have a realtor coming on Monday.

Im moving on.

Listen to your gut.

Invest in hard bitcoin for 10 years. It is the asset that will perform best in the next 10 years. And in the meantime you also earn ₿ from your work. Don't take time to start a family (if that's what you want) the years go by quickly.