You can do both. I learned to program WHILE starting my first company. It was great, provided a needed output of the things I learned and made me a better student/developer for it.

Everyone talks about starting a company, and going all in (I use to be that guy) but when I took an honest look at my career path, many of the "projects" that became companies were started while I was doing something else. Clarity was built nights / weekends while I "vested in peace" after my company was acquired.

Spheric Technologies was started while I was working for a big company as a consultant.

Flowtown was part time for the first few months as I didn't know if I wanted to do that full-time, or move to China.

There's 16 hours (maybe more depending on your age) to create .. a job only takes 8. You have 8 more.

MANY companies have started this way ... either as a service company doing consulting, and a product was spun out (27 Signals, Freshbooks, Hootsuite, Shopify, etc) or done nights and weekends while working at a startup.

So yeah, you can do both if you have the energy and work habits.

my2cents.