After a brief adrenaline shot of renewed excitement (maybe the topic of future post), I came across a few interesting quotes on entrepreneurship.
Quote from “The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of American’s Wealthy” excerpt:
About two-thirds of us who are working are self-employed. Interestingly, self-employed people make up less than 20 percent of the workers in America but account for two-thirds of the millionaires. Also, three out of four of us who are self-employed consider ourselves to be entrepreneurs. Most of the others are self-employed professionals, such as doctors and accountants.
Interesting quote from Paul Graham:
So why do I spend so much time thinking about startups? I’ll tell you why. Economically, a startup is best seen not as a way to get rich, but as a way to work faster. You have to make a living, and a startup is a way to get that done quickly, instead of letting it drag on through your whole life. [9]
We take it for granted most of the time, but human life is fairly miraculous. It is also palpably short. You’re given this marvellous thing, and then poof, it’s taken away. You can see why people invent gods to explain it. But even to people who don’t believe in gods, life commands respect. There are times in most of our lives when the days go by in a blur, and almost everyone has a sense, when this happens, of wasting something precious. As Ben Franklin said, if you love life, don’t waste time, because time is what life is made of.
So no, there’s nothing particularly grand about making money. That’s not what makes startups worth the trouble. What’s important about startups is the speed. By compressing the dull but necessary task of making a living into the smallest possible time, you show respect for life, and there is something grand about that.
So what’s the takeaway here? Well, I guess that depends on your goals. As I personally went through the thought process to go down the path of entrepreneurship, I thought about all the different things I wanted in life and wanted to accomplish. While I can ramble on and on about those thoughts, let’s just say they didn’t involve being stuck at a large corporation. The 2 things that stuck out in my mind:
- I wanted more control over my life and financial well-being.
- At this point in my life, I have the passion and energy to aggressively attack “making a living”. Why spread the working evenly across life? I’d rather try to get the hard lifting out of the way…
I hope everything goes according to plan 
- JC
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on Jun 8th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
I’ve heard entrepreneurship explained as a way of showing respect for life, but that’s pretty cool. Going to have to chew on that for awhile while I sit here being an entrepreneur…hhhm…
on Jun 8th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Wait, that quote doesn’t make sense to me….
“About two-thirds of us who are working are self-employed. Interestingly, self-employed people make up less than 20 percent of the workers in America”
So is it two-thirds or is it less than 20 percent?
on Jun 9th, 2006 at 12:06 am
Oh, sorry, that’s from the perspective of millionaires interviewed for the book. Its form the section titled “PORTRAIT Of A MILLIONAIRE” if you take a look at the article. So 2/3 of the millionaires next door are entrepreneurs. Hope that clarifies things!
on Jun 9th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Ahhh, I get it now. Makes me kinda rethink the rank & file life….
on Aug 16th, 2006 at 9:50 am
I’m not surprised to read that 2/3rds of America’s millionaires are self-employed people, but “make up less than 20 percent of the workers in America”. I’m five years out of college now, and I’ve finally decided to quit my job as a programmer, shift gears and move my life into the fast lane - even if it means moving into the poor house for a while. I have an idea for an IT service company and hope to pitch it in front of some investors. I’m not normally a very extroverted person, but a friend of mine told me about a reality show where the idea is just that - pitch your company to a panel of experts (I only hope David Hasselhoff isn’t one of them). The show is called Dragon’s Den (www.insidethedragonsden.com). If you can convince the dragons to invest then you can walk away with the money, otherwise you walk away with nothing. But what I really want is a primer on what to expect when dealing with potential investors. I’m calling my company ITsIT until someone’s lawyer tells me I can’t anymore - so wish me luck and look for me on tv!
on Aug 17th, 2006 at 6:41 am
Wow, very neat. Good look with that! It sounds like a great opportunity. Here’s a Paul Graham article on presenting to investors: http://www.paulgraham.com/investors.html