Yes, the subject is one that will continually fascinate and drive discussion (and some of us to distraction). I've visited this subject myself in an early post. To recap, I think an entrepreneur could be motivated by money, or the dislike of working for someone else, or the lack of a viable job, or, the one that interests me, by an idea that refuses to be shunted aside.
So why am I writing about this again? I was reaching out to a tech expert about referrals, and checked out his blog, which had a response about someone else's post on why people do startups. The original post leans towards the thought that it's the prospect of incredible wealth the drives people into startups. The response, in brief, calls this moonshine.
Granted, both are discussing the issue in terms of economic inequality or the lack thereof. And what makes someone join a startup may be substantially different from what makes someone start it. All I know is, from an entrepeneur's viewpoint, it can't just be about money. Every entrepreneur I know would definitely want the I-too-have-my-own-Boeing payoff, but all of them are driven by other goals. I remember one of them telling me when I started my first company 'if you're doing this just for the money, you won't be able to handle the pressure - you'd walk away and get a corporate job the first time you can't make payroll or your customers don't bite'. I can tell from personal experience this was absolutely spot on. And on my second one, I'm meeting many fellow entrepreneurs who're launching startups not only for the value of the product/service, but for the chance to build a different kind of company, one that resonates with their values. Maybe they'll never be the next Google, but they could very well keep a bunch of people happy and solvent too. It may sound idealistic, but whether they're only about the money are not, startups are all about dreams.
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