Those who side with Scott Shane's view that entrepreneurship is generally an economically irrational act (i.e., why start a business when you could make more money working for someone else) really don't understand what makes entrepreneurs tick.
One of my undergraduate students sent along this video that sheds some light on why entrepreneurs do what we do. While profits matter, there is something much stronger that drives us to start new ventures....
One of my undergraduate students sent along this video that sheds some light on why entrepreneurs do what we do. While profits matter, there is something much stronger that drives us to start new ventures....
It's ridiculous that it takes years of "scientific" research for so many people to come to such an obvious conclusion: PEOPLE ARE NOT MOTIVATED ONLY BY MONEY AND GREED!
Just a few years ago, I was a well-paid systems administrator for a nationwide corporation. However, I walked away from that job in 2007 because management never understood what I meant -- or simply didn't take me seriously -- when I said, "The thing I want most is to feel human at the end of the day."
Of course, the money was important -- I wouldn't have worked there without compensation. However, as this video points out, the profit motive wasn't properly bound to the autonomy, mastery, and purpose motives at this company. All its employees were treated as mere resources, not HUMAN resources, and the company truly suffered as a result, although management, listening only to itself, never made the connection.
Presently, my wife and I own a two-year old Internet business that positively and powerfully changes lives each and every day. We're not earning anywhere near what we earned at the companies we left, but the inimitable personal fulfillment we experience often makes us feel like we've discovered a way to gain the world and not lose our souls.
As our business grows, we're going to do everything we can to help create a workplace environment conducive to all our employees enjoying this personally as well as financially rewarding experience.
Dr. Cornwall, following is an extended discussion of these matters featuring Russ Roberts, host of Econtalk.org, and David Pink, author of ~Drive~:
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/08/daniel_pink_on.html