If another entrepreneur tries to tell you that they haven’t leaned back in their home office late at night after working a 16-hour day and asked themselves, “What was I thinking,” they’re lying. One of the hardest things about realizing your dream is the fact that nobody is going to do it for you.

There have been literally millions of men and women who, after a long day at work and putting the kids to bed, then sit down and start working on their own ideas. It could be a simple idea for a startup or a lofty master plan bred out of obsession. Either way, two things that those sitting late at night at their dining room table have in common are that (1) they’re not the first and (2) they’re not alone.

I am frequently asked by people who are thinking of pursuing a startup on the side – how do I do it? How do I not get fired from my current job? How do I make sure that I don’t pollute my new company’s IP with the IP of my current employer, thereby destroying or negating the value I am trying to create? Unfortunately, those questions don’t necessarily have easy answers. However, there are guideposts on this road.