In four years I’d like to be in a position where I can either found or work at a tech startup.

I’ve got a few big things working against me. The first, by far, is a lack of time. After that, my programming skills have until recently focused almost exclusively on Visual Basic, an older language with limited applicability to internet programming. My business knowledge is, well, crap. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about starting or running a business, let alone the internet startup world where important things like revenue are seem to be optional. Also, I have a beautiful, loving wife who I have to carefully balance all of this with.

On my side of the ring, I’ve got ambition, maybe some good ideas, a passion to learn, and a strong desire to do something new and exciting for a living.

The current plan to entrepreneurship goes something like this:

1. Learn new programming languages by reading books and programming web apps

2. Become knowledgable about finance and business by reading, researching, and doing

3. Keep up with and learn from the tech world via blogs like TechCrunch, Hacker News, and the like

4. And this is a bit more abstract: a general sense of personal development. Hacker News’s wallflower said it well, but Marc Andreessen said it best: “… it’s now critically important to get into the real world and really challenge yourself — expose yourself to risk — put yourself in situations where you will succeed or fail by your own decisions and actions, and where that success or failure will be highly visible.”

5. And most importantly, do all of this while enjoying life and maintaining my health, sanity, and relationship

Should be easy, right?