I’m running a startup ONLY because I want to be rich. No, not really.
I started thinking about my motivation for running a startup. Actually, I lied. My mom made me think about it. She thinks that I’m doing what I’m doing not for money, but rather the status and reputation for being a young entrepreneur. This goes back to me being an attention whore.
If I’m honest to myself about this, I’m going to have to admit that she’s almost right. I guess I’m living more for the journey than I am for the end result. (The end result being a nice business exit with a lot of cash in the bank)
To young entrepreneurs, you’re going to hear this a lot: Enjoy your experiences and cherish the present. It’s great to have goals for the future, but don’t get obsessed about it. I guess I’m slightly biased – I already had one nice exit with a decent sized bank account to back whatever new venture I want to start. My parents pay for my living expenses, so I don’t have that to worry about.
It’s pretty easy to ignore old fogies. I lost count of how many times I heard the above paragraph from an old fogie. (Old fogie is someone over the age of 25) But I began thinking about things differently when I spoke to my friend Greg. He went to college at age 14 and is now working on his own web 2.0 startup. Emmet Shear, the CTO at Justin.tv also told me the same. He went to college at age 14 or 16 then decided to slow down.
So what does this mean for entrepreneurs? I think it makes sense for everybody to think about their motives. What’s driving your passion? Money, popularity, fun?
This goes the same for college students. I know so many pre-med students who don’t really care about being doctors. They want money. They want to please their parents. But how is this going to make them happy in the long-run?
As for me, I plan on having a wicked awesome time in college, run a super profitable company, and have fun doing everything at the same time. And if I fail, whatever… I’ll just try again, again, and again.
Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She’s currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, SimonsRockers.com, and Jessicamah.com.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Yeah, I think whatever you do, if you’re passionate about it, you’ll accomplish a lot. I don’t know if everyone has a particular interest or talent that fascinates them, but even if someone doesn’t, if they put their heart into it whatever they’re doing they’ll find a way to succeed.
A good example is Leonard Riggio, who walked into Barnes & Noble and got a job. The bookstore had been around for about a hundred years, but he ended up running it and turning it into huge chain.
He was quoted once as saying that if he’d instead walked into a hardware store, he’d have ended up starting Home Depot. Maybe he wasn’t particularly inspired, but he made the most of something.
Medical students are a sad case. My wife’s friend is a doctor, she loves it, but her brother hated med school. I guess he felt like his family expected him to do it, but he ended up killing himself!
Doctors who are just in it for the money are scary, anyway.
I saw your post on Richard Branson. He’s hard to figure out, but he must be good at getting folks to help him. I didn’t realize Virgin had 80 companies! He must be the most successful serial entrepreneur in the UK, if not the world.
I do wonder if getting rich is alone enough of a motivator. I suspect that a lot of the folks who seem motivated by money are really trying to prove themselves, show somebody they’re not a failure, etc. Of course these motives aren’t much better!
September 6th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
what startup/company do you run?