I’ve always been motivated by money and stability, and usually stay in a safe situation long after I should have left. So why the radical departure from my previous self? The inspiration of innovation.

The past three years have seen technology go through a massive upheaval thanks to three transformative innovations: iOS, Cloud Computing and the “Consumerization” of IT. Each individually changed the rules of the game. Taken as a whole, this triumvirate has changed every business user’s expectations about how products should work. If something isn’t easy to use and isn’t always available, regardless of how it’s consumed, it will not survive. Your biggest competitor is likely the one that doesn’t exist yet.

This is no grand realization, but it was enough to make me think about what I want to do now and in the future. On one hand, I had a very good job at a stable company, as well as an outstanding manager who was both an incredible mentor and my outspoken advocate. But in staying with the company, my future would have been stale technology, fear of innovation and tighter golden handcuffs.

This change in our technical world has been set in motion, and I can either be a part of or watch it pass me by. Both the newspaper and music industries saw the change for years and did nothing. Look where it got them.

I learn best by doing, falling over and getting back up. So I’ve decided to go all in and start Gantry, Inc., focusing on making ExecutiveView the best product I can make. This is a very exciting time for both technology and business, and I’ve never been more motivated to be a part of it.

As I left my previous job, only a single person there thought I was making a bad decision; everyone else was extremely supportive. And it was shocking how many shared the desire to build their own companies but couldn’t, for one reason or another. So to everyone out there who does not have the courage to go his/her own way, take advice from Steve Jobs, a man who always follows his passions:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Making a sandwich does not make you a chef. Babysitting does not make you a parent. Changing your girlfriend’s oil does not make you a mechanic.

“At the exact moment you had your idea, ten other people had the exact same idea. There was just something in the environment that made it the right time for folks to think that one up. The race has already begun! Who’s going to execute first? Who’s going to execute best? If you want to waste nine months trying to raise VC money for that idea, great. But six months in, you’re gonna cry when you see someone else put out that same product you’re pitching me right now. Like I said, forget everything else and just get your product out the door. Now.”

This weekend I also rediscovered Martin Kleppmann’s excellent blog Yes/No/Cancel. First it was building simple REST APIs in Scala but felt strangely validated reading The Python Paradox is now the Scala Paradox. He uses an argument from Paul Graham that:

“…a company can hire smarter programmers if it chooses to write its code in a “comparatively esoteric” programming language”

While Paul Graham was arguing about Python at the time, Kleppmann argues that Scala is this year’s black and has had great success using it to build parts of Go Test It:

“…but provided the technology is suitable and won’t increase your costs disproportionately, why not do something fashionable and adventurous? In an innovation-based technology business, the quality of your developers is key. Investments into things which make your good developers happy will pay off handsomely.”

I’m with Seth that every minute I’m not working on my ideas someone else is, but I struggle with what risks I add by using tech that is new to me. Is it worth adding a few months to get a solid architecture in place as opposed to throwing together a shell that’s mostly throwaway? When you have no product you can only consider the opportunity cost.

In the end none of it matters if I don’t have a working prototype, but this does continue to occupy me… especially as I wait on GWT to compile with Snow Leopard fixes.